And I hate to be the bringer of discouraging news, but the reason car manufacturers are succeeding at selling us polluting gas guzzlers is that we want it. Eve

And I hate to be the bringer of discouraging news, but the reason car manufacturers are succeeding at selling us polluting gas guzzlers is that we want it. Every time we buy an SUV and pay for gas, we teach companies and their executives that we want what they have. And so yelling at the company for delivering what we have shown we want is a bit like yelling at yourself for eating so much ice cream. Until we start using electric cars or transit, we're a big source of our own problems. You might as well try to change human nature. --- Yeah nope, this insight from the '80s didn't age well. Regulation has repeatedly fixed broken markets, and the whole ad tracking / data broker industry is beyond broken. The real "human nature" is responding to incentives. Applies to companies too. Adjusting those incentives with regulation has a long track record of being effective when done with even a modicum of goodwill and competence, which despite politicking is usually the case. Of course, breakups of individual companies won't achieve much as you said. But that doesn't justify jumping to "it's up to individuals to change their behaviour" mantra. That's exactly the bullshit that the plastics industry successfully used to pollute the whole planet with their garbage, blaming individuals for not recycling. You can debate the morals of that kind of blame, but you can't deny that it's completely ineffective at solving the problem.