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A country could benefit from having behemoth monopolist companies, as long as they're pulling plenty of money from abroad into the country. If Facebook and Goo

A country could benefit from having behemoth monopolist companies, as long as they're pulling plenty of money from abroad into the country. If Facebook and Google have a duopoly on online ads, and businesses in India and Saudi Arabia and Russia and Europe who want to advertise online are sending money to America, and the companies are making lots of their American employees rich - that sounds like a good thing for America?

madeofpalk 3y ago
Do you think there might be negative effects for other american businesses if two companies control digital advertising and collude with each other to limit competition? https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-google-monopolizing-digital-advertising-technologies https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-googl...
- michaelt 3y ago
  Of course there'll be negative effects for other American businesses. But so long as the collusion has a greater negative effect for foreign businesses, and most of the money extracted from American businesses stays in America - that's more money for America. Hypothetically. At least, this is what I assume American legislators are thinking when they ignore competition issues.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - nothead 3y ago
    That's not how the system works, though. Digital ads in foreign markets are foreign income, which means that there are not domestic benefits. When Google sells an ad in Saudi Arabia, that ad revenue goes to Google's local company and only benefits Google. Even though they're an American company, that revenue is not taxed or repatriated in any way. There's a current SCOTUS case about this exact question and it looks likely that it will be decided in favor of these companies to repatriate their revenue without paying a single penny in taxes. In other words: they racked up hundreds of billions in revenue and just held it overseas until they can claw it back without paying their fair share.

madeofpalk 3y ago

Do you think there might be negative effects for other american businesses if two companies control digital advertising and collude with each other to limit competition? https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-google-monopolizing-digital-advertising-technologies https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-googl...

michaelt 3y ago
Of course there'll be negative effects for other American businesses. But so long as the collusion has a greater negative effect for foreign businesses, and most of the money extracted from American businesses stays in America - that's more money for America. Hypothetically. At least, this is what I assume American legislators are thinking when they ignore competition issues.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- nothead 3y ago
  That's not how the system works, though. Digital ads in foreign markets are foreign income, which means that there are not domestic benefits. When Google sells an ad in Saudi Arabia, that ad revenue goes to Google's local company and only benefits Google. Even though they're an American company, that revenue is not taxed or repatriated in any way. There's a current SCOTUS case about this exact question and it looks likely that it will be decided in favor of these companies to repatriate their revenue without paying a single penny in taxes. In other words: they racked up hundreds of billions in revenue and just held it overseas until they can claw it back without paying their fair share.