Why does Washington want to destroy America’s ‘Magnificent 7’?

OPINION:

Nothing exemplifies the dominance of America’s tech industry in the global economy more than the meteoric rise of what are now being called the “Magnificent Seven” stocks: Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.

These companies account for nearly all of the gains in the stock market this year (see chart). They — which is to say, we, as American shareholders who own them — have a net worth of nearly $10 trillion.

Think about it. None of these gazelles are Japanese, German or Chinese. All seven are American companies. They are globally dominant. They are innovators nearly unrivaled in human history. You would think that their best years were behind them. No. They are getting stronger, not weaker.

As a consequence, they are keeping the 401(k) and other retirement plans owned by more than 100 million Americans in the green.

These are the General Motors, Standard Oil, J.P. Morgan and U.S. Steel of the 21st century.

But here’s the mystery. In Washington and among the political class, instead of being lionized for their amazing products, they get no respect, as Rodney Dangerfield used to say.

Worse, Democrats, Republicans and federal regulators have their carving knives out for them. Apparently, making a profit, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, and adding trillions of dollars’ worth of consumer welfare are nefarious pursuits in the country where, to paraphrase Calvin Coolidge, the business of America is supposed to be business.

Or, as the 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire” put it, SHOW me the money! These powerhouses have certainly done that.

Many Democrats want to break up Big Tech — because the companies are too dominant. Democrats don’t seem to understand that it’s far better to be dominant than inferior.

There is also a teeny-weeny problem with the accusation that these companies engage in monopolistic behavior. Every one of them has substantially lowered prices for consumers — for  laptop computers, cellphones, social media interactions, products delivered right to your door and artificial intelligence.

Or how about gaining instant access to almost any information you want? Google puts virtually the entire Library of Congress at your fingertips — and most of the material is available free of charge. The villains!

Even more absurd is the claim that the multitrillion-dollar size and influence of these companies are squeezing out the smaller entrepreneurial companies that dare to compete with them. That happens sometimes.

But the bigger impact of these behemoths is to breathe life into literally thousands of startups that attract capital based on the dream that five years from now, they will be acquired at 20 times their current value by, say, Microsoft or Meta.

Then there are those on the right who want to tether the Magnificent Seven because they don’t like their leftist politics or the suppression of conservative voices on their platforms. I share their concerns, but it’s a free country, and they own the products and megaphones. There are plenty of alternatives if you don’t like their public policy positions.

Congress is intent on killing the Google — er, the goose — that lays the golden eggs. Apparently, they’d rather have us all be poorer and buy our phones and search engines and robots from China or India.

One of the ironies of calling America’s tech giants “The Magnificent Seven” is that in the 1960 movie of that title, five of the seven are killed in the last scene.

In this age of Mach 5 innovation, that could eventually happen to Google and Apple — and sooner than you think. It’s not easy to remain the king of the hill. These companies have stayed erect by constantly innovating and giving customers more for less.

But when they get knocked down to earth, let’s hope it’s because of the forces of free market competition, not government regulators trying to fix something that surely ain’t broke.

Here’s the final irony of this war against the Magnificent Seven. If the politicians do succeed in driving these epic American companies to their knees, there will be a hullabaloo about how America is losing its tech dominance. Then the knuckleheads in Washington will start passing out billion-dollar taxpayer subsidies to the very companies they now set out to impede and destroy.

• Stephen Moore is a co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and chief economist at FreedomWorks. His latest book is “Govzilla: How the Relentless Growth of Government Is Devouring Our Economy.”