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Generally I agree with your overall points but I have one small reservation about this part: > If you want to break up companies to make it easier for independ
by drivebycomment 6y ago
Generally I agree with your overall points but I have one small reservation about this part:
> If you want to break up companies to make it easier for independent therapists, those are the ones to break up.
It's not clear breaking up BetterHelp and Talkspace will do good at this point.
Fundamentally, it's not efficient or possible for all of therapists in the entire US to compete for everyone's eyeballs independently. It's impossible for consumers to meaningfully compare and "shop" against tens of thousands of therapists, nor tens of thousands of suppliers to compete for tens of millions of consumers. You need some mechanism to funnel this down and organize this market. This is why retailers and various dealers and brokers exist, and BetterHelp and Talkspace are the retailers of therapist service, just like Amazon and Walmart are the retailer for many different goods suppliers.