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You are talking about monopolies or quasi monopolies. Business in competitive environment are incentivized to not screw their customers. AMD vs nVidia, Walmart

by rafale 5y ago

You are talking about monopolies or quasi monopolies. Business in competitive environment are incentivized to not screw their customers. AMD vs nVidia, Walmart vs Costco, Coca-cola vs Pepsi,... Even monopolies don't like to do that as to not attract negative attention, they just fix their price high and come up with a narrative to do so. Whenever I have an issue with a private company, it usually getd resolved a lot faster. One time I called my ISP mad that I wasn't notified of their new cheaper and better plans, and they upgraded me, paid the difference and gave me a free month. The whole ordeal from start to finish lasted 20 minutes (including wait time on the phone). And ISPs are known assholes. The problem with governments is that they are a monopoly by default and they can't really go bankrupt (and when they do, they find a way to survive).

AnthonyMouse 5y ago
It's the difference between a monopoly by law rather than by economics. If the local power utility is a private monopolist, there is still a limit to how abusive they can be before people will e.g. install solar panels, or buy a generator. There is no limit to how abusive the local licensing bureaucracy can be because no matter what they do to you, no one can set up a competing licensing system that you can use instead. There is no equivalent to generating your own power. And voting doesn't work when the affected people are a minority of the voters. The government could imprison everyone in the state of Nebraska and no one in Nebraska could do anything about it if the people in California don't care enough to vote in somebody else. They are in fact already incarcerating more than that many people without anybody stopping them. It also doesn't work when the voters are misinformed. For example, the people of New York (and several other blue states) consistently pay more in federal taxes than they receive in federal programs, yet their representatives continue to support high federal tax rates. Even if you support those programs, those constituents would be significantly better off if they were state rather than federal programs, and don't seem to notice this.
- lazyasciiart 5y ago
  Of course everyone notices this. The willingness to pay taxes to benefit people beside yourself is the basic divide between left and right, so it’s not a coincidence that a more lefty state like NY elects representatives who support it.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - AnthonyMouse 5y ago
    Local taxes pay for roads and schools. Federal taxes pay for the F-35 and corn subsidies. The "people beside yourself" who "benefit" are the likes of Lockheed Martin and Monsanto.
lazyasciiart 5y ago
And one of the ways we prevent monopolies, to protect the consumer, is by introducing government regulation of businesses. Look, we circled all the way back to the topic!

by rafale 5y ago

AnthonyMouse 5y ago

It's the difference between a monopoly by law rather than by economics. If the local power utility is a private monopolist, there is still a limit to how abusive they can be before people will e.g. install solar panels, or buy a generator. There is no limit to how abusive the local licensing bureaucracy can be because no matter what they do to you, no one can set up a competing licensing system that you can use instead. There is no equivalent to generating your own power. And voting doesn't work when the affected people are a minority of the voters. The government could imprison everyone in the state of Nebraska and no one in Nebraska could do anything about it if the people in California don't care enough to vote in somebody else. They are in fact already incarcerating more than that many people without anybody stopping them. It also doesn't work when the voters are misinformed. For example, the people of New York (and several other blue states) consistently pay more in federal taxes than they receive in federal programs, yet their representatives continue to support high federal tax rates. Even if you support those programs, those constituents would be significantly better off if they were state rather than federal programs, and don't seem to notice this.

lazyasciiart 5y ago
Of course everyone notices this. The willingness to pay taxes to benefit people beside yourself is the basic divide between left and right, so it’s not a coincidence that a more lefty state like NY elects representatives who support it.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- AnthonyMouse 5y ago
  Local taxes pay for roads and schools. Federal taxes pay for the F-35 and corn subsidies. The "people beside yourself" who "benefit" are the likes of Lockheed Martin and Monsanto.

lazyasciiart 5y ago

And one of the ways we prevent monopolies, to protect the consumer, is by introducing government regulation of businesses. Look, we circled all the way back to the topic!