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The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

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Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#391

Post by scarface_74 »

OkayPhysicist wrote: post #387
scarface_74 wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just maybe some people don’t think that the government having more power and control is a good thing? 37% is not a monopoly. If you have a differentiate product, you can set up your own website through Shopify or any number of places. And if you haven’t been paying attention, the FTC has been laughed out of court for the last five years every time it has gone after BigTech

What possible complaint could you have about government overreach that doesn't equally apply to corporations? Antitrust law is the only thing standing between us and a corpohellscape "America, an Alphabet Company".

Government has the power of the state to force their wills on people. Please tell me a scenario where an adtech company will gain the ability to take away my rights and property the way the government can?

The government has a “monopoly on the legal use of force”.

Look no further than Florida to see what an overzealous government can do when you disagree with them or the police that raided a newspaper office because they reported on police corruption.

I’m much more worried about when the police are behind me because “I don’t look like I belong” in my own neighborhood than the Google car mapping my street.

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#392

Post by pnutjam »

scarface_74 wrote: post #374
pnutjam wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that relevant?

Because Amazon is a retail company and the amount that Amazon charges is not much different than the cost overhead of getting any product through the channel.

so my (theoretical) company that optimizes to keep these costs lower shouldn't be able to compete on those fees?

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#393

Post by thfuran »

esarbe wrote: post #358
nickff wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? You seem to be expressing outrage, anger, or frustration, but you're not giving the rest of us anything to think about.

All of them enjoy market domination in their respective areas of expertise. Their size makes them effective monopolies and their behavior has many times ruled anti-competitive. Competition between them is insufficient and they have been convicted of organizing in monopolistic manners before. For consumers and the market as a whole it is more healthy if they are broken up into smaller companies.

Even if they weren't near monopolies in their respective fields, I think we should be wary of permitting the sort of concentration of power that arises from the existence of trillion dollar corporations.

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#394

Post by jhbadger »

scarface_74 wrote: post #380
jhbadger wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, here's a real example. About a decade ago there was a simple video conferencing system called Nautilus. A simple LCD screen that let you call other people with the device and talk to them, not having to bother with computers or smartphones. The sort of thing that is good for talking with elderly relatives who may not be very computer or phone savvy. I bought one (from Amazon) for myself and my elderly parents.…

Really? That’s your example? Everyone and their mother has a video conferencing solution and the idea has been around as something to aspire to since the 60s with the Jetsons . Do you agree with the look and feel lawsuit that Apple had against MS? Or think that Roku, Amazon, Google , etc did something untoward because they came after Apple with set top boxes?

Well, for historical accuracy, Roku was first in regard to streaming devices you hooked up to your TV. Apple and the rest copied them. And it is pretty much obvious that Microsoft copied Apple (and yes, you can argue that Apple in turn copied PARC). But what makes Amazon copying things different is that they are a marketplace for other people's products and a maker of products themselves. That has an intrinsic conflict of interest.

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#395

Post by user3939382 »

scarface_74 wrote: post #341
hn_version_0023 wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially the media companies! They put artificial limits on the range of acceptable thoughts, acting as both a muzzle and a noose around the neck of the public.

Yes because there is absolutely no way for you to get your thoughts to people worldwide without depending on big media…

Parler

Strawman in any case, having a technical option doesn’t negate massive horrible effects on the public.

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#396

Post by scarface_74 »

pnutjam wrote: post #392
scarface_74 wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Amazon is a retail company and the amount that Amazon charges is not much different than the cost overhead of getting any product through the channel.

so my (theoretical) company that optimizes to keep these costs lower shouldn't be able to compete on those fees?

Sure, if all you care about is money, then you can already go on Amazon and choose alternate vendors that are available at a lower price with slower shipping.

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#397

Post by mcguire »

nearbuy wrote: post #376
fyrn_ wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's nice, but the reality is that Amazon has almost 90% control of e-commerce. They have huge monopoly power, and laws exist to protect consumers from that. Is it the ideal way to build a society? No, But the government should still step in when it happens.

They have about a 38% market share of e-commerce in the US, far ahead of any competitors, but also far from 90%. https://www.statista.com/statistics/274255/market-share-of-t...

(The next leading market share is Walmart's 6.3%.)

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#398

Post by thfuran »

granzymes wrote: post #365
s3p wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Breaking the company up into smaller units that don't have the monopoly power of forcing their sellers to fix prices.

But how? The smallest unit of a possible breakup would be a standalone 3rd-party marketplace company, and yet that unit would still have the same market power for 3rd party sellers as Amazon as a whole does today.

Why is that the smallest possible unit? It may not be especially practical, but it's certainly possible to break Amazon up by retail product category (one company for books, one for kitchenware, etc).

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#400

Post by pnutjam »

scarface_74 wrote: post #396
pnutjam wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so my (theoretical) company that optimizes to keep these costs lower shouldn't be able to compete on those fees?

Sure, if all you care about is money, then you can already go on Amazon and choose alternate vendors that are available at a lower price with slower shipping.

So you don't even know what the article is discussing. Amazon is killing competition and increasing costs to consumers.
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