2 ms·
Its probably worth reading about Rockefeller and some of the reasons we began to enforce anti-trust laws in the first place. What we want in this country is no
by TheGRS 8y ago
Its probably worth reading about Rockefeller and some of the reasons we began to enforce anti-trust laws in the first place.
What we want in this country is not solely a free market, but a competitive one. Huge corporations often find themselves in the position of improving profit not by offering better products, but by snuffing out their competitors. Often nefariously.
Rockefeller didn't just establish a great supply chain for his oil refineries, he began making railroad companies charge other refineries more than his company. Then he bought the railroads and made the process even easier. He was literally making Standard Oil the only game in town. Anti-competition is not in our best interest as Americans.
And I'm not saying content providers are going to employ the same tactics as Rockefeller did, but its not hard to see how if you controlled a substantial amount of capital in the entertainment industry, maybe you can blacklist actors who decide to go do a show on Netflix. Or pay a director a few extra million just to stop working with HBO. We, as both consumers and free marketeers, do not want this behavior.
- linuxftw 8y ago> What we want in this country is not solely a free market, but a competitive one. Who's this we business? Turn of the 20th century politicians? > Rockefeller didn't just establish a great supply chain for his oil refineries, he began making railroad companies charge other refineries more than his company. And were those railroads forced to take that deal? Economies of scale. Sounds similar to how Walmart is able to use their buying power to force down prices from their suppliers. "Raise prices for others" is the same as "Lower prices for me." > Then he bought the railroads and made the process even easier. Similar to how Walmart and now Amazon have their own shipping services as well (Walmart does their own back-haul). > Or pay a director a few extra million just to stop working with HBO I'm pretty sure this is already a thing? You can create all sorts of contracts around non-compete. > We, as both consumers and free marketeers, do not want this behavior. I want exactly this behavior. Hopefully we can cut out more middle people and have more direct-to-consumer purchasing model.