Break up Amazon before it does any more damage to America

NY POST ^ | 10/9/18 | Maureen Callahan

[SoFloFreeper]

....Author, entrepreneur and NYU business professor Scott Galloway has emerged as one of Amazon’s fiercest critics. At last month’s Recode Code Commerce, Galloway gave a 45-minute talk on the future of retail that savaged Amazon and warned of the threats the company poses not just economically but philosophically and morally.

“I believe our society is effectively going through this very uncomfortable transition that is bad for our youth, bad for America and bad for the planet where we no longer worship at the altar of character and kindness,” he said. “We worship at the altar of innovators and billionaires.”

In his best-selling book “The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google,” Galloway cites some arresting statistics: Far fewer U.S. households have a gun than Amazon Prime, by 30 to 64 percent. More Americans have Prime than voted in 2016 (55 percent), or earn $50,000 or more a year (55 percent), or go to church (51 percent). He calls Amazon’s ability to woo Prime subscribers at a $119 yearly cost the equivalent of “entering into a monogamous relationship” with its consumers, who as of 2016 spent, on average, $193 per month. (Non-Prime members average $138 per month.)

From 2006 to 2016 Amazon’s stock price growth surged by 1,910 percent, destroying Sears, J.C. Penney, Kmart, Best Buy, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Target and Walmart.

Perhaps most importantly: Since the Great Recession, Amazon has paid just $1.4 billion in corporate taxes compared to Walmart’s $64 billion.

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

The internet companies have driven other companies out of business and put many Americans out of work.

They broke all the laws in the brokerage industry, like know your client, because they had the political clout to do so, buying off the politicians.

This has resulted in monopolies and barriers to entry there.

[TangledUpInBlue]

But people have to adapt. They have to change. They have to evolve and they have to improve. The same could be said about:

Railroads vs. Planes
Stagecoach vs. Cars
Mail vs. Email
Land Lines Phones vs. Cell Phones
Leaded vs. Unleaded gas
And of course the Internet.

But the Internet isn’t only Amazon. Another problem is that technology far outpaces legislation and tax law. Look at the recent Scotus Wayfair case as a perfect example. For 5 decades a case from 1992 ruled the way sales taxes were forced to be collected in this country. Are companies still doing business today like they did in 1992? Think of how much has changed since then? Was FR even here then?

Law of natural selection. Adapt. Evolve. Or Die.

[Excellence]

I’ve never bought anything off of Ebay but I’ve sold stuff on Ebay and had a great fun time doing it.