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The existence of billionaires is far more harmful to competition than government is.
by _emacsomancer_ 6y ago
The existence of billionaires is far more harmful to competition than government is.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoIf you’re a billionaire, it’s likely hard to understand why you’re the problem (as well as an economic system configured that allowed such wealth concentration).
- devilduck 6y agoIt is also hard to understand for the droves of people who wish they could become billionaires
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- dungdang 6y agobut what about dictators in nuclear armed countries? an whatabout african armies in zimbabwe killing people? whatabout hitler? the existence of hitler was far more harmful than billionairs.
- BoysenberryPi 6y agoI don't understand what this Whataboutism has to do with the topic at hand.
- dungdang 6y agoexactly.
- brendoelfrendo 6y agoYou’re commenting like you won, but everyone else is just confused what your original point was.
- dungdang 6y agomy point, mr sherlock holmes, is that the comment i was replying to is whataboutism. and by 'everyone' i assume you mean yourself and the couple of people who downvoted due to their stupidity. that's not just not everyone. it's literally almost no one, out of the hundreds who read it and understood just fine. like any person of even below average iq can. federal law makes it illegal for anyone but usps to deliver letters? rich people want to allow competition on letter delivery? but billionairs bad, so usps should have a monopoly. this is what the comment i replied to said. get it now? next i'll show you tje bunny method if tying your laces, so no more need for those velcro shoes little guy!
- refurb 6y agoI don’t know too many billionaires who can have me arrested and incarcerated for the rest of my life.
- marnett 6y agoWhat a silly remark. How many billionaires do you know? Billionaires are gods amongst men - why would you think they couldn’t dispose of you by public or private means?
- refurb 6y agoIt’s not silly at all. I’m far more afraid of the government who has the power to lock me up for the rest of my life (as has the system set up to do so) than some random billionaire.
- _emacsomancer_ 6y agoI guess you just know the wrong (right?) billionaires.
- missedthecue 6y agoHow? How can a billionaire prevent competition without siccing the government on them through tariffs, regulatory hurdles, licenses, etc...
- posguy 6y agoBuying up all the land that contains a particular resource then guarding it, thus permanently locking said resource away is one way to monopolize a market vertical.
- jeffbee 6y agoIf there had ever been such a person, even once, it seems like we'd be celebrating them today. If you could send a guy back 200 years to keep all the coal in the ground, you'd do it.
- posguy 6y agoThere are very few that will celebrate De Beers implementation of this monopoly business model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers#Legal_issues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers#Legal_issues
- missedthecue 6y agoDe Beers does not have a monopoly. Look up their market share.
- posguy 6y agoThey had an effective monopoly, until their control of supply was broken: http://www.paulzimnisky.com/a-brief-history-of-de-beers http://www.paulzimnisky.com/a-brief-history-of-de-beers
- missedthecue 6y agoBy market forces. Competition, when permitted to exist, produces net benefits.
- isthispermanent 6y agoI would disagree. Billionaires and mega companies are able to pioneer and validate ideas that smaller companies may not be able to due to financial or operational restraints. But once an idea is validated smaller competitors come in and start picking off verticals. Shopify and it’s 100,000+ stores are around in large part due to Amazon not only validating and producing best practices for the e-commerce model but also in building the foundational infrastructure (AWS) for smaller companies to leverage. There are major benefits to having mega companies and billionaires around, and particularly having them in your country. Albeit, I agree, we do need to come up with a better tax strategy for the ultra wealthy.
- _emacsomancer_ 6y ago> I would disagree. Billionaires and mega companies are able to pioneer and validate ideas that smaller companies may not be able to due to financial or operational restraints. Sorry, you mean that billionaires and megacorps are able to profit off of ideas pioneered and validated by publically-funded research institutes? I don't see how their inability to do so would be a loss to society.
- isthispermanent 6y agoWhat would be your idea to ensure scaled, cost-effective production of the ideas that come from these institutions? And we can’t consider an idea validated until it is brought to market.
- _emacsomancer_ 6y ago> And we can’t consider an idea validated until it is brought to market. I see you've designed your test to guarantee the result you want.
- manquer 6y agoYou don’t billionaires to validate new ideas, and amazon was not started by a billionaire . Billionaires rarely If ever have created a brand new industry or idea to fruition A billion dollar market is not the same a billionaire . You need the former you don’t need the later .