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The US has too many monopolies. This is bad for everyone except those monopolies, including workers, consumers, and smaller competitors. It's time for a new wa
by mtgx 8y ago
The US has too many monopolies. This is bad for everyone except those monopolies, including workers, consumers, and smaller competitors.
It's time for a new wave of trust busting.
- cryoshon 8y agosure, but the problem is that there are no legitimately recognized avenues for doing so. politicians won't want to be seen as "anti business" because they know who funds their campaigns. non-elected regulators are already captured, so there's no movement possible there. workers have no real power at present -- and, if they tried to exercise power anyway, they'd be branded as radicals without any legitimate perspective on policy. consumer boycotts are a thing of the distant past, and are unlikely to reach the size necessary to inflict the requisite amount of damage in any event. smaller competitors may be living hand-to-mouth as far as their businesses are concerned, so they're in no shape to take on social or economic change. all of this is BEFORE we think about whether amazon is a genuine monopoly that threatens competition in rigorous terms. i'm of the view that it is monopolistic in its intent, but the existence of a plurality of options for any given commodity which it produces/sells makes it hard to build a case for it being a living monopoly if you're talking to someone who is pro-amazon or pro-big business.
- bearcobra 8y agoI'm curious where you feel Amazon has a monopoly? Google and Microsoft offer compelling alternatives for cloud infrastructure and the retail market has tons and tons of competitors. I have a lot of concerns about the power corporations like Amazon, but I'm not sure I see where the monopoly exists.