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At some point monopolies stop being the more user friendly approach by abusing their position to the point that they provide bad service for high costs, and you

At some point monopolies stop being the more user friendly approach by abusing their position to the point that they provide bad service for high costs, and you're forced to deal with it. These companies were user friendly at first, but as all companies do, they are slowly squeezing the profits out of everything they can. They are steering us towards a local maximum that ends in them taking a massive chunk of the money from everyone forever, for no benefit to anyone else, simply because they're sitting on market inertia. People could eventually demand something like that "Wild West" you speak of, because it is the solution that fosters competition and prevents the monopolies from abusing their power. But I think there is something preventing that from happening - the companies in charge are spending vast amounts of money on PR to convince the public that their monopoly situations are not really so bad. And, I think as a result, they've got folks like you defending them.

dodobirdlord 6y ago
And yet, the platforms and the services they provide just keep getting better and better, and Apple is still charging the same 30% cut that they started with back in 2008. "Slowly squeezing the profits out of everything they can" just reads like anger fantasy.
parasubvert 6y ago
This isn’t about PR or propaganda, that’s a lazy way or implying you’re somehow more enlightened then the defenders. This reminds me of old Windows vs OS/2 or Linux advocacy arguments on USEnet. I’m defending them because I have seen enough history to not want the alternative for our mobile phones, and also because most folks here are very flawed understanding of antitrust, monopoly and rents. None of those laws as traditionally interpreted and enforced apply to this situation. They’re free to extract 30% because that’s the holy grail of what businesses are and have always been about, taught in every business school for the past 50 years, and how commerce laws were structured: crafting a sustainable competitive advantage that still benefits consumers.

dodobirdlord 6y ago

And yet, the platforms and the services they provide just keep getting better and better, and Apple is still charging the same 30% cut that they started with back in 2008. "Slowly squeezing the profits out of everything they can" just reads like anger fantasy.

parasubvert 6y ago

This isn’t about PR or propaganda, that’s a lazy way or implying you’re somehow more enlightened then the defenders. This reminds me of old Windows vs OS/2 or Linux advocacy arguments on USEnet. I’m defending them because I have seen enough history to not want the alternative for our mobile phones, and also because most folks here are very flawed understanding of antitrust, monopoly and rents. None of those laws as traditionally interpreted and enforced apply to this situation. They’re free to extract 30% because that’s the holy grail of what businesses are and have always been about, taught in every business school for the past 50 years, and how commerce laws were structured: crafting a sustainable competitive advantage that still benefits consumers.