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

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641–650 of 653 posts

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

#641

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So has the Turkish government created a cell phone? A search engine? A popular e-commerce store?

Only an ecommerce store of that list, but many other things. Though the store doesn't really matter because competition is already rampant in the ecommerce space. I wrote a letter to our Presidency asking about these other things you mentioned last week.

So would the Turkish government be happy to let you sell something that was pro Kurd?

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

#642

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not whataboutism at all. Only people that don’t know that housebrands have been a thing forever would think that the evil Amazon is doing something unique. And CVS follows the formula of name brand OTC drugs down to the very ingrediant to make house brands. You can’t copyright a shirt measurement. And before you call me an “Amazon shill”. I got PIPed from Amazon less than two months ago. I’m the last person who…

The major difference here is that Amazon has major market power as an online mall. Like with the sears example, large 'mall' like organizations do outright steal designs and stonewall the original copyright holder. A random housebrand does not have access to Amazon's statistics, logistics or reach. Amazon is looking at stats that they hide from their providers, to choose who to copy, then out-price the original selle…

And CVS doesn’t have major power when it comes to selling drugs and knowing which ones it should knock off with home brands? Every single store knows what to knock off based on what it sells.

And Walmart sells a lot more than Amazon.

You don’t think that every store knows how to undercut other products in its own store with house brands?

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

#643

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's not the monopoly on force, it's the monopoly on the claim to the legitimate use of violence, from Max Weber:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36317559>

There are numerous examples of private corporations or non-governmental actors engaging in violence, with or without state support or sanction. There are the 100 million souls lost, respectively, to the British East India Company's occupation and administration (as a private entity, with military powers) of India, of the transatlantic slave trade by numerous private commercial operators, and of the genocide against the indigenous populations of the Americas, again much by privately-chartered corporations (as the original British colonies were). There are extant mercenary forces such as Constellis (formerly Academi, formerly Xe, formerly Blackwater) in the US, or the Wagner Group presently transacting genocide in Ukraine. There are oil companies who have initiated coups, paramilitary actions, and assassinations throughout the world. There is the Pinkerton Agency, still extant, and with a storied role in violence against labour and civil rights movements. There are railroads, with their own (private) police forces, which are in fact registered as law enforcement despite being nongovernmental.

The truth is that there is no clean distinction between State and Private use of force, lethal or otherwise. What there is in government is, one hopes, legitimacy and accountability to the citizenry rather than to creditors and investors.

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

#644
post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost every claim of astroturfing is from someone who doesn't understand the basic argument opposing their position.

Unless it's Amazon reviews, where almost every glowing 5 star review is paid for.

Based on what? You’ve never given a 5 star review? I sure have and I’m sure many many other people have too.

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

#645

While they are at it they should also go after the credit card companies. They have managed to extract a 2-3% tax on most retail transactions. There is really no reason why the fees should be that high in the age of electronic transactions.

Also, ATM fees should be capped at 1% of the money withdrawn. And I've noticed lately that I'm getting hit by two ATM fees -- one from the ATM machine, and another from my bank, which is more than twice as much as the ATM machine's fee. I end up paying $3.50 to withdraw money from an ATM.

Have you looked into a make with free ATM transactions? Ally refunds any ATM fees.

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

#646

HotTake: the result of this should be to nationalize Amazon to be the defacto national provider of AWS services, delivery, logistics, and backstopped retail services.

This will seem less and less like a hot take over time, I think. People seem generally unhappy that megacorps like Amazon and Google simply exist.

They are also unhappy that the government exists…

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

#647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, the actual way is to go company by company and dismantle them. And by Starting with the biggest it sends a message to others that perhaps they should change before they too get broken up. You will never finish if you go company by company, there’s just too many. Additionally no company ever stops anything until forced to. Your suggestions will not solve anything.

Basically you just said it's hopeless So what's the solution?

I reverse this question to you, what is the solution? I have none but asking companies to change will do nothing. Forcing them to change is a dictatorship. So you tell me what the solution is?

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

#648

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically you just said it's hopeless So what's the solution?

I reverse this question to you, what is the solution? I have none but asking companies to change will do nothing. Forcing them to change is a dictatorship. So you tell me what the solution is?

1. Set the example by creating or joining organizations that are not based on Capital owning the majority of the organization (cooperatives, non-stock not-for profit etc..)

2. Increase taxes on non-labor capital growth to directly fund full employment programs Eg make "profit" impossible

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

#649

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Finally I lowered the price enough to get it sold. How much did you have to lower the price by? How did that compare to the ad-ransom you would have had to pay?

I sold it for $540 (without using ads). Same specs are selling on swappa.com for $620-$780. My eBay reputation is 100% and the MacBook was 100% clean. Perhaps I could have sold it for "more" using ads, but then all that money would just go to eBay, which I don't think is fair. They already take a final value fee anyway.

Terrible. Price gouging has been worsening the last couple of decades. Perhaps the last few centuries, or maybe it comes in waves, like resets when there’s a government revolution. People keep paying though. I’m at my city’s town center and I’ve never seen it so packed, except in the Black Friday-Christmas season. It’s a random Saturday. Some people have Monday off but that doesn’t explain the domestic shopping. Where is the money coming from?

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

#650

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Craigslist exists and used to be the main go to for stuff like that. We gotta get the eyeballs back on craigslist

so many scams and fake people on Craigslist made me move to Facebook marketplace. They have better algorithms for detecting real people.

FB Marketplace is better but still scams aplenty
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