4 ms·

I honestly think behind climate change, the current state of anti-trust enforcement is one of the biggest issues facing Americans right now. It's disappointing

by skohan 5y ago

I honestly think behind climate change, the current state of anti-trust enforcement is one of the biggest issues facing Americans right now. It's disappointing that it's not even expected for anti-trust action to happen anymore.

coliveira 5y ago
This is not a new danger. Americans had to deal with that by the end of the 19th century. The elites were able to run back the clock and remove or control any anti-trust structure that has been created to avoid their crazy accumulation of money and power.
obert 5y ago
I think America might want to tackle health care, drug addiction, inequality, racism, sexism before worrying about anti-trust
- skohan 5y ago
  I think having a handful of corporations owning everything makes all of those issues worse
- choward 5y ago
  Need to tackle corruption before we can solve any of those.
- RugnirViking 5y ago
  Extending off what the other commenter said, consolidation within the medical market is a big reason for the opiod epidemic. It's not something that just came out of nowhere, its directly because a large company intentionally pushed for highly addictive drugs to be given to as many people as possible It's also a big reason for the fact that americans spend far far more on healthcare than other countries. For reference, the US government spends 28% of your tax on healthcare. The UK government spends 18.8%, which is arounge average among western nations. And ON TOP of that, americans pay huge medical fees and insurance. Inequality is partly caused by the two above issues, combined with the fact that its really damn hard to make much of a company for yourself when a vastly more powerful company is intentionally suppressing or if you're one of the lucky few buying out all of its competition. Racism and Sexism are at least partly caused by ineqality, but another big part of it comes from the consolidation in mass media. Shock stories on the national news about the actions of ten or fifteen people can cause and deepen ingrained biases about millions.
TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
A guy named Matt Stoller focuses on this sort of thing. He's been saying that the right people have been appointed to the FTC, but it remains to be seen if this will produce any real, consumer-felt fruit. This is him, just 2 hours ago, at the time of this writing: https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/1483486914888019968 https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/148348691488801996... He is reporting that the chair of the FTC is begging for public comment on merger activity. UPDATE And just a few minutes ago, questioning whether this whole Microsoft/Activision will be stopped. https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/1483532115362951171 https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/148353211536295117...
fomine3 5y ago
I think US have motivation not to do anti-trust enforcement. Dominated US companies dominates worldwide market and earn money for US, but also hurts US market.

by skohan 5y ago

coliveira 5y ago

This is not a new danger. Americans had to deal with that by the end of the 19th century. The elites were able to run back the clock and remove or control any anti-trust structure that has been created to avoid their crazy accumulation of money and power.

obert 5y ago

I think America might want to tackle health care, drug addiction, inequality, racism, sexism before worrying about anti-trust

skohan 5y ago
I think having a handful of corporations owning everything makes all of those issues worse
choward 5y ago
Need to tackle corruption before we can solve any of those.
RugnirViking 5y ago
Extending off what the other commenter said, consolidation within the medical market is a big reason for the opiod epidemic. It's not something that just came out of nowhere, its directly because a large company intentionally pushed for highly addictive drugs to be given to as many people as possible It's also a big reason for the fact that americans spend far far more on healthcare than other countries. For reference, the US government spends 28% of your tax on healthcare. The UK government spends 18.8%, which is arounge average among western nations. And ON TOP of that, americans pay huge medical fees and insurance. Inequality is partly caused by the two above issues, combined with the fact that its really damn hard to make much of a company for yourself when a vastly more powerful company is intentionally suppressing or if you're one of the lucky few buying out all of its competition. Racism and Sexism are at least partly caused by ineqality, but another big part of it comes from the consolidation in mass media. Shock stories on the national news about the actions of ten or fifteen people can cause and deepen ingrained biases about millions.

TheRealDunkirk 5y ago

A guy named Matt Stoller focuses on this sort of thing. He's been saying that the right people have been appointed to the FTC, but it remains to be seen if this will produce any real, consumer-felt fruit. This is him, just 2 hours ago, at the time of this writing: https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/1483486914888019968 https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/148348691488801996... He is reporting that the chair of the FTC is begging for public comment on merger activity. UPDATE And just a few minutes ago, questioning whether this whole Microsoft/Activision will be stopped. https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/1483532115362951171 https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/148353211536295117...

fomine3 5y ago

I think US have motivation not to do anti-trust enforcement. Dominated US companies dominates worldwide market and earn money for US, but also hurts US market.