Posted on 06/20/2017 6:59:59 AM PDT by Callahan
“Amazon just bought Whole Foods,” my friend texted me seconds after the announcement of the proposed acquisition. “It’s over. The world.”
This unease is widespread, and has raised new calls for breaking up Jeff Bezos’s impending monopoly by force. Surely the company, which now generates 30% of all online and offline retail sales growth in the United States, and already controls 40% of internet cloud services, has reached too far. The 3% hike in Amazon’s share price since the announcement—which would alone more than pay for the acquisition—may attest less to the deal’s appropriateness than to investors’ growing fear that missing out on Amazon means missing out on the future of the economy.
Whatever you may think of Jeff Bezos, and whether or not antitrust regulations can justifiably be applied to a company whose expansion doesn’t raise but actually lowers costs for end consumers, may be beside the point. Many of us get that something is amiss, but are ourselves so deeply enmeshed in the logic of last century’s version of free-market industrial capitalism that we can’t quite bring ourselves to call this out for the threat it poses to our markets, our economy, and even our planet.
(Excerpt) Read more at fastcompany.com ...
And Google. And Facistbook. And Microsoft. And Apple.
There is too much power concentrated in these companies. And while we're at it, we need to be looking at ways to break up the Democrat Propaganda systems known as ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN.
“The reason why monopolies were broken up in an industrial economy was that they tended to gain control over the platforms through which their products were distributed.”
Higher on my list would be Google.
what a whiner....a private company doing what it can to enrich itself and still offer value to the their customers....and hurry, let’s get the jack-booted government thugs to make things right...?
Media companies should not be part of a conglomerate.
WaPo the Bezos blog
C*NN is owned by someone else.
This country has a long history of misunderstanding Monopolies.
If the president (and congress) announce that all real estate deals in NYC must be handled through Trump Industries, then the president has established a monopoly.
If the US government decides that only Intel is allowed to produce semiconductors within the continental United States, then a monopoly has been established.
Monopolies are bad.
However, if Amazon conducts online business better than anyone else and grows and grows and makes customers and investors happy, this is not a monopoly. There is nothing to “fix” here.
>>Many of us get that something is amiss, but are ourselves so deeply enmeshed in the logic of last century’s version of free-market industrial capitalism that we can’t quite bring ourselves to call this out for the threat it poses to our markets, our economy, and even our planet.
I’ve been saying it for a few years. Capitalism is great, but the laws of economics for the 20th century are quickly becoming the anchor tied to our necks. We need economics for an age of information, fast shipping, and virtual merchandise.
Yep, lots of confusion about what “conservativism” is.
You can probably find a nearly identical thread on DUmp today.
I vote Goldman Sachs.
And weld shut the revolving door between GS and the fed. gov.
No entity is forcing the public to use any of these particular companies services. Nothing is preventing the public to use another companies services. The direction of how and where the public spends their money is the most pure form of Democracy there is. Once any of these companies spend money or resources to prevent the public from using other companies or has sole propriety for a product or service that is essential to a vast majority of the public, then the feds need to step in.
However, if Amazon conducts online business better than anyone else and grows
and grows and makes customers and investors happy, this is not a monopoly.
************
Amazon is now doing deliveries seven days a week
in some locations and are expanding the service.
“Higher on my list would be Google.”
I would agree and it you can make a better case for it. I’d venture to say 80% of the world uses Google to search for info about anything. “Google it” is becoming part of the culture. When you have leftist organization controlling 80% of the worlds search results you have a big problem.
What I don’t get was how Amazon was able to operate for 20 years without making a profit in a supposed free market. They undercut brick and mortar stores and put them out of business.
>>Amazon is now doing deliveries seven days a week
in some locations and are expanding the service.<<
How much more than 7 days a week can you expand?
Because they really did make a profit, but plowed it all back into the business.
Our system wasn't designed to work with one party control of speech.
I don’t care how liberal Bezos is. I love Amazon.
The problem I see is the problem which is why I buy groceries cash, without an affinity card to identify me. I don't want any more of my purchases than necessary on my computer profile. When people buy their groceries from Amazon, that will become part of their computer profile. It will be used for marketing, by banks, by employers, for insurance purposes.
Maybe I'm over the top. It's just that no one corporation should know as much about a person as Amazon will if this is successful.
Thank you. I love love love Amazon. We live in the woods and shopping is distant and dismal overall. Because of Amazon we have access to many things that enrich our lives. Including roku.
Leave Amazon alone. I don't know what I would do without them.
Do you really want one company controlling the wealth and resources in this country? Not to mention people like Bezos and Zuckerberg will hold vast power over politicians?
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