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...?
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.
I vote Goldman Sachs.
And weld shut the revolving door between GS and the fed. gov.
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.
I'm no lawyer, but it seems that this inconvenient point would undermine any antitrust action against Amazon.
It's also worth noting that we heard the same nonsense when Wal-Mart was allegedly taking over the world, too.
All monopolies lower costs for consumers at first. That's how they eliminate competition and become monopolies. Once they are established and all significant competition is gone, watch what happens then.
Probably a stupid idea but also largely impossible: no one is congress would ever vote against their corporate masters
re: online ordering
Heard on the radio news this morning that UPS (IIRC) is going to start adding a surcharge to shipping around Black Friday/Cyber Monday and Christmas.
I would expect other carriers to either follow that or ramp up their PR as being against it.
Walmart is trying hard to get into the online ordering. They already have pick-up service at many of their stores.
Bust them all up. Especially Amazon.
The level of panic on this is retarded. Really, it’s just Whole Foods, they’re a minuscule part of the grocery market. If they’d bought Safeway/ Albertons maybe this reaction would be warranted, but the didn’t. They aren’t a monopoly folks, get over it already.
More than just Amazon needs to be broken up. They really need to break up Comcast (force Comcast to sell off NBC Universal), AT&T must sell off Time Warner, Disney to split into three (one with Disney’s own properties plus the theme parks, one with Lucasfilm and Marvel Entertainment, and one with ABC and ESPN).
So. Amazon is going to destroy our planet.
Oh. The Humanity!
You’re worried about Media services because they own so much? Maybe you should worry about the banks they get their funds from to do their work.
At the end of 2015, the too-big-to-fail banks, instead of getting smaller, are pretty much taking over the financial universe. The largest five banks in the U.S. now control nearly 45 percent of the industry’s total assets, according to an analysis from SNL Financial that comes amid an earnings season that has been generally positive for the largest institutions.
In total, the five institutions—JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and U.S. Bancorp—had just under $7 trillion in total assets as of the end of 2014. That’s good for 44.61 percent of the industry total. It also leaves the other 55.4 percent of the assets to be divided up among 6,504 other institutions. Banks had total assets of just over $15 trillion at year’s end, a number that has grown to about $15.3 trillion in 2015, according to the Federal Reserve. The asset total for the five institutions in 2015 represents a 2.3 percent gain from the previous year. And the 2016 gains should be just as good if not better toward control of the finances for everyone.
As an industry, banks made $36.9 billion in the year, Though the total profits declined, the number of banks that operated at a loss dropped to 9.4 percent from 12.7 percent in 2013. So even though they control a vast majority of the worth, they still have to have more.
JPMorgan showed the biggest growth in terms of its share of assets, increasing 13.3 percent on a quarterly basis and 6.7 percent annualized, SNL reported. BofA and Wells Fargo saw modest increases in their share.
Without these types of funding facilities, the media would never get the capital to do what they are doing. And these guys are as thick as thieves with the media. Otherwise the ability to monopolize wouldn’t be possible. And then consider who the national debt is owed to.
rwood
Seemed to work well with that AT&T company.
This is the fool who God is going to use to usher in the antichrist! ... I believe we are rapidly heading towards the latter days which the Bible speaks of! Come quickly Lord Jesus and do not forsake your children who are called by your name!
Fast Company is a techie lib mag, akin to the bloggers Rush talks about. This is fun watching libs battle lib for who hates capitalism the most.