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Wild. Of all the things that do not seem to be under threat and desperately needing a newspaper to stand up and defend them: free markets in America.
by stevage 2y ago
Wild. Of all the things that do not seem to be under threat and desperately needing a newspaper to stand up and defend them: free markets in America.
- goatlover 2y ago25% tarrifs on Europe certainly isn't an example of free markets.
- nxm 2y agoIt is… free market allows reciprocity of tariffs levied against US products in the EU
- amanaplanacanal 2y agoI believe what you are describing is commonly known as fair trade, not free trade.
- gruez 2y agoAt least in common parlance, "fair trade" just referred to paying third world farmers a "fair" (ie. above market value) price.
- PaulHoule 2y agoIf there are 25% bidirectional tariffs the big companies win but you lose. In a free market without tariffs you are free to go to the better vendor no matter which country you go to. Competition makes everybody get better. With 25% tariffs Europeans go to the tired European monopoly and Americans get gouged by the American monopolies. The monopolists agree it's great but you pay more for worse services.
- loeg 2y agoThe president's tariffs are not wholly reciprocal to foreign tariffs.
- sergiomattei 2y agoIsn’t it a return to protectionist, mercantilist-like policy? That’s the opposite of a free market.
- sixo 2y agowell, all these tariffs are a major regression away from free markets. Although somehow I doubt this is what Bezos has in mind.
- rainsford 2y agoYeah there is an obvious immediate test here for whether Bezos is sincere about this new direction. An opinion section aggressively advocating for free trade should be able to find plenty of reasons to criticize the new administration. I'm pretty skeptical that's what will happen though.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- droopyEyelids 2y agoThe actual original meaning (and the one that still makes sense) of free markets was “free from economic rent” as sections of the economy were monopolies granted by the king. Those free markets really did benefit the people and the country. And they were compatible with taxes and tariffs. Bezos is using the corrupted modern meaning, “free to charge economic rent” because he wants amazon to capture a greater share of global economic activity
- jaredklewis 2y agoI agree with you about the term's original usage, but I don't think that is the modern meaning. Usage varies, but most commonly "free market" refers to an economy that is not centrally planned. All economies have at least some level of central planning, as well as at least some degree of economic freedom for participants, so the term is somewhat like the usage of "right" and "left" in politics, where it just indicates which side of a center line someone or something falls. Any market on the free-er side of the "center" can be described as a "free market." So it has basically just become an antonym of socialism. I don't think it necessarily implies anything about a tacit approval of rent seeking in the economy.
- 2y ago
- slibhb 2y agoThere are plenty of people who defend free markets...but both political parties are increasingly against them. Biden and Harris both campaigned on price controls. Trump is all in on tariffs.
- nickpeterson 2y agoYou don’t get big corporate donations to your superpac by trying to bust up monopolies.
- gruez 2y agoDemocrats out-fundraised the Republicans last election and were arguably more anti-business (eg. Lina Khan's FTC) than the Republicans.
- XorNot 2y agoDon't pretend cost of living wasn't a lot of Trump voters reason to vote for Trump. The tarrifs weren't a surprise and Vance was running around brandishing a box of eggs as the greatest problem. The electorate only likes free markets when it makes things cheap with no consequences they care about.
- paulddraper 2y agoThat sounds beneficial for sure.
- Ancalagon 2y agoThey aren't free. Noticed all the oligopolies around lately?
- fatbird 2y agoDo you think Bezos has it in mind to take on those oligoplies when he changes the editorial focus to promoting free markets?
- ayjay_t 2y agoIt's not the worst reach
- UncleMeat 2y agoTo Bezos, "free markets" is a world where Amazon is free to monopolize however it wants without interference. It is one where people like Lina Khan are imprisoned or shot rather than placed in positions of power. What consumers want is a competitive market with many choices that pushes down prices and forces companies to innovate. What Bezos wants is to crush everybody else.
- pylotlight 2y agoLately? When was it not like that?
- PaulHoule 2y agoFrom 1932 to 1980 or so the government tried to break up big monopolies to encourage competition, both parties pretty much agreed not to do that (there are some real benefits to consolidation) until the last 8 year or so because monopoly power is getting extreme. See https://www.thebignewsletter.com/ https://www.thebignewsletter.com/
- tacticus 2y agopartly because of astroturfing about "benevolent" monopolies that was pushed on to judges and politicians
- loeg 2y agoFree markets are under attack in all kinds of different dimensions by the ruling president and legislature: tariffs, restricting dock automation, etc.
- nxm 2y ago[flagged]
- argsnd 2y agoUS on average has higher tariffs than the EU, which the USA wants to apply even higher tariffs on
- 63 2y agoThat's not what was said. The line of comments was "free markets are not under attack" followed by "From this perspective, they are." There was no judgement passed. I don't find your response curious or otherwise insightful.
- georgemcbay 2y agoDavid Attenborough voice: And here we see the modern conservative in his natural habitat. Notice that when any idea challenges his world view he will instinctually react with a defense mechanism known as the whataboutism.
- decremental 2y ago[dead]
- robocat 2y agoThe US often talks about wanting free markets: but it uses some pretty big sticks too negotiate with and has some fairly hefty demands to get value for the US. The Trans Pacific agreement was pretty ugly as a New Zealander. In particular was the 'Disney' copyright extensions. The US uses it's economic power to increase is economic power, while inviting other countries to sell their low value farming goods cheaply to the US. And it's not like they are respecting the intention of NAFTA - what's an agreement worth if the US can unilaterally decide to hack around their agreements.
- bitshiftfaced 2y agoThere is a set of values that are common among news organizations. If you don't share a value, then of course you wouldn't think it's important enough for a newspaper to defend. That doesn't mean it's not important to those who do share the value.
- mostlysimilar 2y agoIn case you haven't noticed, the current US administration is packed full of billionaires who are dismantling all protections that keep free markets from steamrolling average people. They don't need more defense. They are winning more strongly than they ever have.
- XorNot 2y agoThe logical goal of any corporation absent regulation is to become a monopoly...which of course ends the free market. They don't want a free market. They want to be free to control the market.
- kibwen 2y ago"Competition is for losers." ~ Peter Thiel
- typeofhuman 2y ago1. Maybe there are some (?alot) of regulations that put the government as a middleman collecting lots of royalties for doing nothing. 2. Big corporations actually like, encourage, and write the regulations because they form a moat for which smaller competitors can't cross (how is this news to this website?).
- XorNot 2y agoThis isn't contesting anything I said. If your goal is to become a monopoly, then you do what you need to achieve that with any tool available to you. The lesson is don't let corporations write regulations, not "obviously regulations are always bad".
- techorange 2y agoI mean, actually, I would argue that free markets in America are in desperate need of defense, but probably not the kind that Jeff Bezos would provide. Specifically away from business consolidations and monopolistic tactics. The very kind of thing that may lead to something like the breakup of say Amazon.