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Walmart and Amazon alone sell $600bn worth of goods. That's 4% of US GDP. These two pushed thousands of independent retailers out of business due to lower price
by anton_tarasenko 10y ago
Walmart and Amazon alone sell $600bn worth of goods. That's 4% of US GDP. These two pushed thousands of independent retailers out of business due to lower prices (and smaller profit margins relative to revenue).
The same happens in transportation, restaurant business, hotel industry. Firms get bigger since 1800. Naturally, the number of new firms decline. In govt stats, it appears as "fewer startups."
Meanwhile, the economy grows thanks to productivity gains in big companies. So what do we want: productivity or new small businesses?
- emp_zealoth 10y agoNo jobs mean you can stuff all your productivity gained in big companies into a trash bin because there wont be demand
- treehau5 10y agoI want a new economical system besides crony capitalism. Time to start thinking outside the box.
- TearsInTheRain 10y agoI feel like more aggressive anti-trust action that breaks up huge companies and reduces barriers to entry and we cang et back to the lean, competitive capitalism that leads to growth and innovation
- dmix 10y agoBreaking up big companies is just the first step and relatively a minor one compared to the many barriers to competing with large incumbent firms. Industries with oligopolies where a more aggressive anti-monopoly policy would makes sense are almost always heavily regulated and in bed with the US gov. So that would only be the starting point if you expect them to continue to exist and not just get acquired. This is more of a problem for medium companies wishing to not get acquired, not so much a roadblock from small firms.
- gwright 10y agoWell, there is an election coming up. Perhaps consider voting for someone other than a Democrat or Republican?
- eeZah7Ux 10y ago> productivity gains in big companies Have you ever worked for any "fortune 50"? Even Google is bureaucratic nowadays. Large organizations get their power from their size, leveraging cheap labor, not paying taxes and so on.
- 1_2__3 10y agoYou seem to think that new small businesses don't contribute to productivity, which is bunk.
- CardenB 10y agoIt seems that they are less efficient than large corporations.