The America tax

The rapid rise of social media and digital platforms has reshaped global society, economics, and politics. Over the past two decades, America has notably thrived economically compared to Europe and other regions, which have experienced far slower growth. Rather than social media itself being inherently problematic, perhaps the real issue is what we've collectively lost in its ascendance—primarily local journalism, community vitality, and economic independence.

The problems facing the world

Three interconnected crises define our current moment:

1. Political dysfunction, underpinned by the disruption of the fourth estate—journalism
2. Loneliness and isolation, as community structures erode
3. Economic failure, where productivity stagnates and the economy doesn't work for most people

These aren't separate problems. They're symptoms of a deeper shift: the systematic extraction of wealth, attention, and power from local communities to American digital platforms.

What we've lost: journalism and the attention problem

Social media and YouTube emerged and became wildly successful—and addictive. Digital advertising took off and became mandatory. Businesses now spend 2-5% of revenue on advertising, money that once flowed to local newspapers and radio stations.

Here's the vicious cycle:

• People go online for entertainment, and digital entertainment means journalism occupies less of our attention
• Journalism struggles to make its business work online as advertising revenue migrates to Facebook, Google, and other platforms
• As journalism struggles, local journalism particularly suffers, meaning local stories aren't covered
• Without local, relevant stories, journalism becomes homogenized and even less appealing
• The prevalence of the town square (positive in some ways) is difficult to monetize, exploitable, and further occupies the little attention that remains—but for unvetted, unverified voices on platforms with algorithms that tune feeds to confirm existing biases or inflame with controversy
• More recently, AI accelerates the commoditization of the written word
• This creates a vicious cycle that accelerates journalism's decline

The tricky thing is that the competitor to journalism in terms of advertising is no longer other journalism. Facebook initially was heavily focused on the redistribution of journalistic media, but Instagram Reels are a far cry from journalism. It's difficult to regulate and enjoy the two together.

If people spent all their time watching The Fast and the Furious to the degree that society was unraveling and businesses were going bust, would you regulate the consumption and provision of The Fast and the Furious? Is that patronizing? But it's also existential.

Politics: unchecked and unaccountable

As journalism collapses, politics is increasingly unchecked and not critically regarded. Politics is no longer modulated by journalism:

• Politics becomes increasingly unchecked, dishonest, and unaccountable
• Politics has a weaker mouthpiece to celebrate actual wins, talk philosophy, and provide context
• These two things combine to create political disconnect and ever-increasing inefficiency

This is another vicious cycle. Without robust journalism to hold power accountable, politicians can operate with impunity. The public becomes more cynical, disengages further, and the system becomes less responsive to actual needs.

Shopping: the death of the high street

People live an increasingly large portion of their life online. That means the high street struggles. As we live online, people shop online — Amazon, run by America, extracting wealth and not paying taxes.

• Local stores suffer and close
• Businesses that survive still have to advertise and have an online presence, paying American platforms
• As local businesses close, failing councils increase rates to extract more from the remaining businesses to cover the real infrastructure costs now divided across fewer businesses

This is yet another vicious cycle. Amazon is objectively a better service and cheaper than the competition, but also incredibly destructive. The free market has no solution to this real human impact.

The economy: the America tax

American businesses are already in an extremely strong position, and the digital economy has made this dominance structural:

• Web hosting is paid to America (AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure)
• Digital advertising is paid to America (PPC, Meta, Google Ads)—not local journalists
• E-commerce platforms extract fees from every transaction
• Payment processing: The duopoly of Mastercard and Visa charge a fee on every transaction, and hike fees 25% with impunity

All of this increases the costs of running a business—the minimum cost. Suddenly all businesses have these additional costs that didn't exist before. All of this decreases productivity. Local businesses either struggle, and America extracts wealth from those that do thrive.

There's also the tax of doing business in English rather than your native language—another structural advantage for American companies.

Natural monopolistic behaviors

Both within America and the restREST An architectural style for designing networked applications. REST uses HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to perform operations on resources identified by URLs. of the world being extracted from, traditional class fractionation also occurs. The money goes from the poor of England to the billionaires of America, and we have no levers to influence them.

Almost all of the top 50 websites in the world are American. America functions like a platform—you have to pay America money to play in many economies. This isn't just market dominance; it's natural monopolistic behavior that emerges from tech:

• Network effects create winner-take-all markets
• Data advantages compound over time
• Switching costs become prohibitive
• Platform effects lock in users and businesses

The state is pretty bad at regulating—look at Ofwat. So let's not assume that regulation is available even if you aren't opposed to regulation. And consumer choice isn't going to solve it because the products are objectively better. So do we just accept the end of British and European economies and societies as we know it?

Jobs: meaningful work replaced with service labor

Jobs are replaced—meaningful creative work replaced with pure service labor. Suddenly the only jobs available for well-educated Oxford physics grads are finance and software engineering.

• Brain drain: People leave for better opportunities in America
• Education extraction: We spend money on education, America uses that talent, doesn't pay tax on the gains, and our education system peters out
• Funding gap: Funding for startups is less in Europe and England
• Pay disparity: Average pay is significantly lower

We need good jobs, not just jobs. But the good jobs are increasingly concentrated in American tech companies, and they're extracting the best talent from around the world.

Bonuses for execs are increasing—Meta just upped theirs. Americans are willing to tolerate terrible conditions and work long hours, creating a competitive advantage that's difficult to match.

Global redistribution and inequality

Some emerging economies have benefited from global trade (but also suffered in horrific ways). More established economies did not necessarily need the global trade and have net lost out as these factors have compounded.

Just as we variously acknowledge that millionaires, untaxed, will increase their wealth relatively over time, we should recognize that without redistribution or fundamental systemic change, American wealth will continue to snowball as others (especially their trade partners) languish in a relative sense.

There's a link between velocity of money and inequality. When wealth is extracted to America and concentrated, it doesn't circulate locally. This creates a feedback loop where inequality begets more inequality.

Those that don't participate also suffer, though, and are loosely still connected to the system. Countries like Ireland have positioned themselves as tax havens, benefiting from American companies but also becoming dependent on them. India has seen brain drain as talented people leave for American opportunities.

Why is America struggling too?

Many of these factors are extremely destructive to America as well. America has struggled less because economic prosperity can offset other issues. The economic prosperity conferred by this economic extraction has potentially masked the symptoms of this dysfunction.

At the latest election, finally we saw a government being brought down despite on-paper prosperity—because it doesn't reach the citizens. The wealth extraction benefits a small class of tech billionaires and executives, not the average American worker.

What can be done?

The "Buy from EU" movement has pros and cons. It's a start, but it doesn't address the structural issues. We need:

• Global redistribution mechanisms to prevent wealth concentration
• Regulation that actually works (though history suggests this is difficult)
• Alternative platforms that aren't American-controlled
• Support for local journalism through public funding or new models
• Investment in local businesses and infrastructure

But the fundamental challenge remains: American platforms are objectively better, cheaper, and more convenient. Consumer choice alone won't solve this. Regulation is difficult and often ineffective. The free market has no solution to natural monopolies that extract wealth while providing better products.

We're left with an uncomfortable question: Do we just accept the end of British and European economies and societies as we know it? Or do we find ways to build alternatives, redistribute wealth, and reclaim some measure of economic and cultural sovereignty?

The America tax isn't just a metaphor—it's a real, systematic extraction of wealth, attention, and power that's reshaping the global economy. And we're all paying it, whether we realize it or not.