Monopolies

[RestlessSoul]

By the way, on the subject of Amazon, does anyone else experience the same fear as I do, of finding myself accidentally signing up to Amazon Prime? On the occasions when I reluctantly decide I have to use Amazon to get something, I have the devil of a job trying to avoid signing on for a "free trial" of bloody Prime.

If you do get on a free trial by mistake, as I once did, you have to jump through a lot of hoops to find the obscure backdoor that enables you to turn the damned thing off before the trial period expires, otherwise they start taking money from your bank account every month, for ever.

In the UK there used to be a law against "inertia selling", meaning the (mal)practice of of giving you something for a temporary "free trial" and charging you if you did nothing to cancel. I am mystified as to why this law cannot be used to stop this iniquitous practice by Jeff Penis-Features* Bezos.


*You may think this harsh, but let's just say Bezos would be well advised to avoid roll-neck sweaters.

And as for his spacecraft, well.......my son and I christened it Bellend One.

I wanted to buy a particular book for a friend last year, and as he lives in Peterborough and I in London, it made sense to buy it online and have it delivered to his house. So I made an exception and used Amazon, and ended up doing exactly what you said - I accidentally subscribed to Amazon Prime, at a cost of around £7.50 pcm. Took me some months to notice.

To Amazon's credit, they did refund my payments pretty quickly when I asked them to.
Did you sign the petition to leave Bezos up there in space forever? Got got several thousand signiatures iirc.

 

[PureX]

Did you sign the petition to leave Bezos up there in space forever? Got got several thousand signiatures iirc.

It's amazing to me how someone with so much wealth can still be so determined to acquire more and more.

Greed is truly a poison that has no limit.

 

[RestlessSoul]

It's amazing to me how someone with so much wealth can still be so determined to acquire more and more.

Greed is truly a poison that has no limit.

Money can be an addiction, just as much as any drug. And just as destructive.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

And surprise, Jeff Bezos has bought the Washington Post and affiliated papers.
Of course, most of our other news outlets already seem to be owned by your countryman, Rupert Murdoch.

It wouldn't surprise you to know he does similar things here, and I think our media ownership concentration is even higher than the USA.

Is Australia’s media market one of the world's most concentrated?

 

[Shaul]

If we left al the regulation, enforcement, public safety, &c entirely up to individuals we'd have chaos, misery, and stone-age level poverty, wouldn't we?

Did anyone suggest we do that?

 

[InChrist]

What do you think about monopolies such as Amazon, Disney and, perhaps to an extent, Twitter? Would you prefer them broken up?

I prefer things to be more equitable for smaller, local businesses. Too often it seems government regulations favor big corporate entities which can afford to deal with the extra financial and legal burdens, while small businesses can’t and are driven out of business.

Have you seen this?
MONOPOLY - Who owns the world? Documentary by Tim Gielen

 

[Valjean]

Did anyone suggest we do that?

Yes. Right leaning consevatives Republicans and Libertarians.
Reagan declared the government didn't solve problems, but was the problem.
Grover Norquist famously advocated shrinking government to the point he could "drown it in a bathtub."

 

[Truth in love]

What do you think about monopolies such as Amazon, Disney and, perhaps to an extent, Twitter? Would you prefer them broken up?

I’m not too worried about a monopoly forming. What scares me is when they get in bed with the gov and the power of government stops others from competing.


Several years back Amazon pushed for changes to tax laws that killed a lot of mom and pop online stores. It’s not officially illegal to compete with them it’s just a red tape nightmare that drives up costs and stops most people from doing it.

 

[sayak83]

What do you think about monopolies such as Amazon, Disney and, perhaps to an extent, Twitter? Would you prefer them broken up?

So I need to install even more apps to get each of the online services....the companies can be different but let there be one app and one subscription plan please.

 

[Valjean]

I’m not too worried about a monopoly forming. What scares me is when they get in bed with the gov and the power of government stops others from competing.

They always end up in bed with government. Unregulated industry and banking always leads to monopoly and government capture. Monopoly is always pernicious.

Adam Smith (...Wealth of Nations) Complained about their malign influence on government, as well as their effects on workers, in the 1700s.
The American revolution was a protest against the East India Company monopoly, which, as Smith pointed out, had already captured the English Government and, with government enforcement, had begun placing onerous restrictions and taxes on American commerce.

Jefferson railed against monopoly, and included their prohibition in his original draft of the Bill of Rights. His friend Madison had similar misgivings.

In the late 1800s we had the "Gilded Age" of poverty and inequality -- due to corporate capture of industry and infrastructure (oil, steel, railroads, mining, banking, &al), by monopolistic Robber Barons.

After that we had the '10s and "roaring" '20s: an unregulated, free-market banking and corporate free-for-all that eventually crashed the economy.

This proved a wake-up call, and protective restrictions were placed on banking and industry, resulting in several decades of rapidly growing prosperity, a strong middle class and, surprisingly, rapid industrial growth.

But where's there's money there's political influence, and, in 1971, war was declared on these regulations, and the Neoconservative movement was born. The Powell Memo (AKA the Powell Manifesto) ⋆ Reclaim Democracy!

This eventually led to Reagan's Neoliberal revolution and 'Trickle Down' economic policies -- and 40 years of deregulation, 'small government'; corporate, media and banking consolidation; growing income inequality, industrial outsourcing, stagnation in the working and middle classes, and growing poverty.

Now we have low wages, homeless camps lining the streets, unaffordable education and healthcare, and endless wars -- not to promote the safety or liberty of The People, but to feed the military-industrial complex, ancillary industries, and to expand and secure multinational, corporate dominance throughout the world.

Monopoly and deregulation are BAD!

Several years back Amazon pushed for changes to tax laws that killed a lot of mom and pop online stores. It’s not officially illegal to compete with them it’s just a red tape nightmare that drives up costs and stops most people from doing it.

This began long before Amazon. Deregulation and concomitant business and media consolidation (monopoly) has been rampant for several decades, decimating small business and filling the country with identical Big Box stores, restaurants and chain stores.

 

[Truth in love]

They always end up in bed with government. Unregulated industry and banking always leads to monopoly and government capture. Monopoly is always pernicious.

Adam Smith (...Wealth of Nations) Complained about their malign influence on government, as well as their effects on workers, in the 1700s.
The American revolution was a protest against the East India Company monopoly, which, as Smith pointed out, had already captured the English Government and, with government enforcement, had begun placing onerous restrictions and taxes on American commerce.

Jefferson railed against monopoly, and included their prohibition in his original draft of the Bill of Rights. His friend Madison had similar misgivings.

In the late 1800s we had the "Gilded Age" of poverty and inequality -- due to corporate capture of industry and infrastructure (oil, steel, railroads, mining, banking, &al), by monopolistic Robber Barons.

After that we had the '10s and "roaring" '20s: an unregulated, free-market banking and corporate free-for-all that eventually crashed the economy.

This proved a wake-up call, and protective restrictions were placed on banking and industry, resulting in several decades of rapidly growing prosperity, a strong middle class and, surprisingly, rapid industrial growth.

But where's there's money there's political influence, and, in 1971, war was declared on these regulations, and the Neoconservative movement was born. The Powell Memo (AKA the Powell Manifesto) ⋆ Reclaim Democracy!

This eventually led to Reagan's Neoliberal revolution and 'Trickle Down' economic policies -- and 40 years of deregulation, 'small government'; corporate, media and banking consolidation; growing income inequality, industrial outsourcing, stagnation in the working and middle classes, and growing poverty.

Now we have low wages, homeless camps lining the streets, unaffordable education and healthcare, and endless wars -- not to promote the safety or liberty of The People, but to feed the military-industrial complex, ancillary industries, and to expand and secure multinational, corporate dominance throughout the world.

Monopoly and deregulation are BAD!
This began long before Amazon. Deregulation and concomitant business and media consolidation (monopoly) has been rampant for several decades, decimating small business and filling the country with identical Big Box stores, restaurants and chain stores.

deregulation and the amazon bit are in the opposite direction.

Good regulation protect people in their ability to conduct honest business. Bad regulation stop them, protect special interest groups and are a burden on the economy.

 

[Sand Dancer]

What do you think about monopolies such as Amazon, Disney and, perhaps to an extent, Twitter? Would you prefer them broken up?

They don't seem to be true monopolies, so I just don't tend to utilize them and choose more mom and pop places or smaller companies.

 

[Yerda]

I don't know how Amazon and Apple get away with the stuff they do now, considering where the line was drawn ~20 years ago.

Matt Stoller writes a really good blog/substack about these issues. The bottom line is that there has been a staggering amount of open corruption in antitrust reporting and enforcement.

What do you think about monopolies such as Amazon, Disney and, perhaps to an extent, Twitter? Would you prefer them broken up?

Break them up or burn them down.

 

[paradox]

What do you think about monopolies such as Amazon, Disney and, perhaps to an extent, Twitter? Would you prefer them broken up?

They should be heavily taxed by governments, harvested cash can then be used by governments to improve standard of living.
Destroying them is not an option because they contribute to economy, depending on how much they're taxed and how much people they employ.

 

[Valjean]

They should be heavily taxed by governments, harvested cash can then be used by governments to improve standard of living.
Destroying them is not an option because they contribute to economy, depending on how much they're taxed and how much people they employ.

"...they contribute to economy?"
They contribute to a 'trickle-up' economy of income inequality. They exploit. They serve their own interests, not those of the ordinary people.

Compare the lives of the corporate heads vs the people in the '50s-'70s: less inequality, less exploitation, greater popular -- and corporate -- prosperity; popular opinion reflected in legislation, wages tracking corporate profits.
No more. Not since Powell declared war on The People, and corporations united against them.

 

[Watchmen]

Methinks a lot of posters don’t understand what a monopoly actually is.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Methinks a lot of posters don’t understand what a monopoly actually is.

I'd agree, actually. But I think they're really talking about businesses which have enough critical mass that they can potentially subvert market competition.