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>Maybe we just need higher taxes for the biggest corporations. Seems to me that'd exacerbate the problem. We need more efficient business, not less. (An evergr

>Maybe we just need higher taxes for the biggest corporations. Seems to me that'd exacerbate the problem. We need more efficient business, not less. (An evergreen need, while !utopia.)

octokatt 2y ago
We need both efficient businesses, with their large economies of scale, as well as efficient markets, which reward innovative efficient businesses by allowing them to get larger. The trick in any attempt to create economic policy like taxes is to balance these two needs of capitalism, and right now the balance is sorely in favor of the former against the latter. Small efficient businesses are being bought by larger ones (and are often taken apart), reducing their impact on the market by reducing their ability to threaten larger businesses. Since capitalism helps people by reducing prices through competition, the ability for oligopolies to use market control to reduce threats to themselves ultimately creates market inefficiency that translates into larger consumer expenses and less common good. Because we're experiencing oligopoly control in most market places, breaking them apart and reducing them with taxes are the two largest levers to create more market competition. I hope this makes sense.
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
Why? I'm not trying to troll, but I am wondering what the goal is? To me it seems like encouraging fair competition and letting deserving smaller companies survive is a sort of efficiency. A lot of big companies seem to be big because they're doing something shady - like the US steel example, or Microsoft with browsers (and now AI), or Apple with app stores and payments.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > what the goal is? Economies of scale.
  - Kinrany 2y ago
    Economies of scale still work with small companies that specialize.
  - jjk166 2y ago
    Generally there is a maximally efficient scale beyond which further growth actually decreases efficiency through diseconomies of scale. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/diseconomiesofscale.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/diseconomiesofscale.asp

>Maybe we just need higher taxes for the biggest corporations. Seems to me that'd exacerbate the problem. We need more efficient business, not less. (An evergreen need, while !utopia.)

octokatt 2y ago

We need both efficient businesses, with their large economies of scale, as well as efficient markets, which reward innovative efficient businesses by allowing them to get larger. The trick in any attempt to create economic policy like taxes is to balance these two needs of capitalism, and right now the balance is sorely in favor of the former against the latter. Small efficient businesses are being bought by larger ones (and are often taken apart), reducing their impact on the market by reducing their ability to threaten larger businesses. Since capitalism helps people by reducing prices through competition, the ability for oligopolies to use market control to reduce threats to themselves ultimately creates market inefficiency that translates into larger consumer expenses and less common good. Because we're experiencing oligopoly control in most market places, breaking them apart and reducing them with taxes are the two largest levers to create more market competition. I hope this makes sense.

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

Why? I'm not trying to troll, but I am wondering what the goal is? To me it seems like encouraging fair competition and letting deserving smaller companies survive is a sort of efficiency. A lot of big companies seem to be big because they're doing something shady - like the US steel example, or Microsoft with browsers (and now AI), or Apple with app stores and payments.

JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> what the goal is? Economies of scale.
- Kinrany 2y ago
  Economies of scale still work with small companies that specialize.
- jjk166 2y ago
  Generally there is a maximally efficient scale beyond which further growth actually decreases efficiency through diseconomies of scale. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/diseconomiesofscale.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/diseconomiesofscale.asp