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I never understood anti-trust. Isn't it punishing a legitimate company for working their ass off for years/decades and growing too big for people's liking? It's

I never understood anti-trust. Isn't it punishing a legitimate company for working their ass off for years/decades and growing too big for people's liking? It's my OS, I don't want to put your app on it, I want to put mine. What's the problem? It's actually against free market. I understand it from a socialist point of view though. Edit: The comments so far have given me some perspective. It was a genuine question to understand.

hagbarth 4y ago
It’s about making the market work for consumers. Monopolies and the like sort of break the market dynamic by removing competition. It’s got nothing to do with socialism.
theharrychen 4y ago
The purpose of anti-trust is to prevent firms from exercising market power that leads to predatory pricing and anti-competitive behaviors that lower social surplus and innovation. There's a whole subfield of economics called Industrial Organization that tackles this.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
hahaxdxd123 4y ago
> It's actually against free market. If you read a lot of the original liberal thought behind the "free market", it actually spells out something probably more aptly named "competitive market". A "free" as in "you can do whatever you want" market does not provide the same theoretical benefits as a competitive market (e.g. you can make models/derive theorems that the long run profits go to 0 due to competition, etc.) Even the wikipedia page for "Free market" today includes: "For classical economists such as Adam Smith, the term free market refers to a market free from all forms of economic privilege, monopolies and artificial scarcities.[2]" I believe that interpretation can come from the following line in Wealth of Nations: "People of the same trade seldom meet together even for merriment or diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick [sic], or in some contrivance to raise prices." > I understand it from a socialist point of view though. I hope this provides further understanding from a liberal-capitalist point of view :)
amelius 4y ago
Did you read the article?
usrbinbash 4y ago
> It's actually against free market. Precisely. And that is a good thing. Why do we like the free market? Because it has proven to be able to drive innovation, increase standard of living, and make life, in general, better. But the free market also has problems, that need fixing. If these problems remain unfixed, they grow, and choke the things we like about the free market out of it. The concentration of power and control in a few entities, and the subsequent effects these entities have on the rest of the market is one of these problems. And anti-trust exists precisely to reset this problem to a manageable state from time to time. The free market is a great system. It's fair to say that it's currently the best system we know how to run the economic side of a society. But it's also not a perfect system, and, like every imperfect system, it cannot be left running unchecked. Even the best server requires maintenance from time to time. If it isn't done, it stops working at some point.
- SettembreNero 4y ago
  > Why do we like the free market? Because it has proven to be able to drive innovation, increase standard of living, and make life, in general, better. [citation needed], especially in environmental terms and for countries outside the first world
  - diegoholiveira 4y ago
    Countries outside the first world usually doesn’t have a free market system in place.
IanCal 4y ago
One key thing I'd say is it's about using your power that you rightfully gained in one sphere to unfairly win in another. I've spent years working towards having this motorbike why can't I use it in the Tour de France? Google got into trouble for doing this with their terrible shopping thing. They didn't compete on having the best shopping tool they just forced theirs to the top knowing it was worse. This is bad for consumers as the assumption is that things get better as companies compete.

hagbarth 4y ago

It’s about making the market work for consumers. Monopolies and the like sort of break the market dynamic by removing competition. It’s got nothing to do with socialism.

theharrychen 4y ago

The purpose of anti-trust is to prevent firms from exercising market power that leads to predatory pricing and anti-competitive behaviors that lower social surplus and innovation. There's a whole subfield of economics called Industrial Organization that tackles this.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

hahaxdxd123 4y ago

> It's actually against free market. If you read a lot of the original liberal thought behind the "free market", it actually spells out something probably more aptly named "competitive market". A "free" as in "you can do whatever you want" market does not provide the same theoretical benefits as a competitive market (e.g. you can make models/derive theorems that the long run profits go to 0 due to competition, etc.) Even the wikipedia page for "Free market" today includes: "For classical economists such as Adam Smith, the term free market refers to a market free from all forms of economic privilege, monopolies and artificial scarcities.[2]" I believe that interpretation can come from the following line in Wealth of Nations: "People of the same trade seldom meet together even for merriment or diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick [sic], or in some contrivance to raise prices." > I understand it from a socialist point of view though. I hope this provides further understanding from a liberal-capitalist point of view :)

amelius 4y ago

Did you read the article?

usrbinbash 4y ago

> It's actually against free market. Precisely. And that is a good thing. Why do we like the free market? Because it has proven to be able to drive innovation, increase standard of living, and make life, in general, better. But the free market also has problems, that need fixing. If these problems remain unfixed, they grow, and choke the things we like about the free market out of it. The concentration of power and control in a few entities, and the subsequent effects these entities have on the rest of the market is one of these problems. And anti-trust exists precisely to reset this problem to a manageable state from time to time. The free market is a great system. It's fair to say that it's currently the best system we know how to run the economic side of a society. But it's also not a perfect system, and, like every imperfect system, it cannot be left running unchecked. Even the best server requires maintenance from time to time. If it isn't done, it stops working at some point.

SettembreNero 4y ago
> Why do we like the free market? Because it has proven to be able to drive innovation, increase standard of living, and make life, in general, better. [citation needed], especially in environmental terms and for countries outside the first world
- diegoholiveira 4y ago
  Countries outside the first world usually doesn’t have a free market system in place.

IanCal 4y ago

One key thing I'd say is it's about using your power that you rightfully gained in one sphere to unfairly win in another. I've spent years working towards having this motorbike why can't I use it in the Tour de France? Google got into trouble for doing this with their terrible shopping thing. They didn't compete on having the best shopping tool they just forced theirs to the top knowing it was worse. This is bad for consumers as the assumption is that things get better as companies compete.