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Amazon should be split into separate independent companies - logistics, AWS, marketplace and whatever else they do now. We need laws that will limit growth of c

Amazon should be split into separate independent companies - logistics, AWS, marketplace and whatever else they do now. We need laws that will limit growth of companies to become too big to fail and have all the money to buy laws, destroy competition and in general do as they please without consequences. It's a loophole in capitalism that has to be closed. Big businesses should follow the same rules as your mom and pops company. If small business often pay over 40% in various taxes, the same level of taxes should apply to big companies. Nice start would be looking into avoidance schemes big companies use and make them pay all they have avoided over the years. Use that money to lower the tax for small business and continue until the playing field is level.

ch4s3 6y ago
> too big to fail How is Amazon "too big to fail" in your opinion? That phrase "I think they're too large", it means that a business is so central to the functioning on the broader economy and to several other industries that their failure would tank the whole economy. Think Boeing or JP Morgan Chase Bank. > and have all the money to buy laws, What exact laws has Amazon bought?
- varispeed 6y ago
  - Well, imagine what would have happened if AWS closed overnight. It would not only affect the economy, but also governments that run their infrastructure on AWS. - What I meant by that is also the money can ensure that new laws are not introduced, or investigations not carried out. Have you seen reports of Amazon Basics, where they ask sellers to hand over their leads and then months later Amazon introduces pretty much the same product undercutting the seller? I would imagine if that was done by a small company, they would have been closed down. Yet when you are big, anything goes.
  - ch4s3 6y ago
    > Well, imagine what would have happened if AWS closed overnight What are the circumstances under which the switch is hypothetically turned off at every AWS data center all at once? It just doesn't seem like a realistic scenario. Most ways in which Amazon could fail would involve either a bankruptcy spinning out aws into one or more holdings, or years of decline where people switch off of AWS anyway. Sure, if all of those data centers blew up, then yes it would be catastrophic for a few months. > What I meant by that is also the money can ensure that new laws are not introduced, or investigations not carried out I see where you're coming from, but it seem a little thin and unspecific. The Amazon Basics thing seems like a bad example. It's the same model grocery stores, Walmart, Lowes, and department stores have used for decades. And no one ever really complained before. In some cases Amazon is white labeling products from the brands they're now competing with. So those companies still capture a lot of the revenue.
- swiley 6y ago
  "too big to fail" means that a business has friends in the legislature and can keep on acting like the local affluent drunk teenager who somehow manages to crash all their parents cars without getting a DUI. If we have businesses that are "too big to fail" then why bother having a market economy?
  - ch4s3 6y ago
    That's not what people meant in 2008 when the phrase "too big to fail" came into the lexicon. The phrase meant that there was systemic risk. You're moving the goal posts to mean "big companies are behaving badly," which is different.
    - swiley 6y ago
      That's certainly how it was sold but I think even then it meant what I said.
      - ch4s3 6y ago
        I really didn't though. There was real fear at the time that if auto makers went under it would ripple through their supply chains and gut the economies of numerous states, then leading to a cascading series of state and local budgetary crises. How correct that assessment was is up for debate. The fear with banking was that the industry had become so consolidated and interleaved that a failure of one mega-bank would bring down the whole financial system and cause a liquidity crisis that would tank any industry that relied on credit for ongoing operations, which is most industries. None of this was about companies' behavior it was about how they had become so large that their failure would destroy huge segments of the real economy. Arguably though, the bailouts are a form of moral hazard that make more companies too big to fail. Its commentary on the system.
- kdmdmdmmdmd 6y ago
  Too big to fail is when we have explicit admission of fraud inside a company and a bunch of people, who are likely shareholders, are lining up to excuse them and compare them to supermarkets.

ch4s3 6y ago

> too big to fail How is Amazon "too big to fail" in your opinion? That phrase "I think they're too large", it means that a business is so central to the functioning on the broader economy and to several other industries that their failure would tank the whole economy. Think Boeing or JP Morgan Chase Bank. > and have all the money to buy laws, What exact laws has Amazon bought?

varispeed 6y ago
- Well, imagine what would have happened if AWS closed overnight. It would not only affect the economy, but also governments that run their infrastructure on AWS. - What I meant by that is also the money can ensure that new laws are not introduced, or investigations not carried out. Have you seen reports of Amazon Basics, where they ask sellers to hand over their leads and then months later Amazon introduces pretty much the same product undercutting the seller? I would imagine if that was done by a small company, they would have been closed down. Yet when you are big, anything goes.
- ch4s3 6y ago
  > Well, imagine what would have happened if AWS closed overnight What are the circumstances under which the switch is hypothetically turned off at every AWS data center all at once? It just doesn't seem like a realistic scenario. Most ways in which Amazon could fail would involve either a bankruptcy spinning out aws into one or more holdings, or years of decline where people switch off of AWS anyway. Sure, if all of those data centers blew up, then yes it would be catastrophic for a few months. > What I meant by that is also the money can ensure that new laws are not introduced, or investigations not carried out I see where you're coming from, but it seem a little thin and unspecific. The Amazon Basics thing seems like a bad example. It's the same model grocery stores, Walmart, Lowes, and department stores have used for decades. And no one ever really complained before. In some cases Amazon is white labeling products from the brands they're now competing with. So those companies still capture a lot of the revenue.
swiley 6y ago
"too big to fail" means that a business has friends in the legislature and can keep on acting like the local affluent drunk teenager who somehow manages to crash all their parents cars without getting a DUI. If we have businesses that are "too big to fail" then why bother having a market economy?
- ch4s3 6y ago
  That's not what people meant in 2008 when the phrase "too big to fail" came into the lexicon. The phrase meant that there was systemic risk. You're moving the goal posts to mean "big companies are behaving badly," which is different.
  - swiley 6y ago
    That's certainly how it was sold but I think even then it meant what I said.
    - ch4s3 6y ago
      I really didn't though. There was real fear at the time that if auto makers went under it would ripple through their supply chains and gut the economies of numerous states, then leading to a cascading series of state and local budgetary crises. How correct that assessment was is up for debate. The fear with banking was that the industry had become so consolidated and interleaved that a failure of one mega-bank would bring down the whole financial system and cause a liquidity crisis that would tank any industry that relied on credit for ongoing operations, which is most industries. None of this was about companies' behavior it was about how they had become so large that their failure would destroy huge segments of the real economy. Arguably though, the bailouts are a form of moral hazard that make more companies too big to fail. Its commentary on the system.
kdmdmdmmdmd 6y ago
Too big to fail is when we have explicit admission of fraud inside a company and a bunch of people, who are likely shareholders, are lining up to excuse them and compare them to supermarkets.