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Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

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Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#451

Post by ryankshaw »

_mlbt wrote: post #424
sanex wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 years ago or so I had T-Mobile for $50/month unlimited everything. I switched off and just went back for $170 for a phone for my wife and I. To pretend to be comparable on a per line basis they gave me a phone number that I literally could not refuse. Before they bought Sprint we had the magic 4 but now it's 3 and a bunch of resellers.

Sprint was not going to survive. They were circling the drain and needed to be acquired to be rescued. I was a customer of theirs and they could literally only compete on price. T-mobile wasn’t in much better shape. Post merger the improvement in network quality and customer service has been night and day. Sprint owned tons of spectrum but was terrible at using it. T-mobile was spectrum starved and would not have the…

My understanding is that T-mobile solved their spectrum issue in the failed deal with AT&T. As part of the penalties of the deal not going through, AT&T had to give them a bunch of spectrum, and some cash to build out towers to deploy that new spectrum.

Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#452

Post by [deleted] »

roenxi wrote: post #444
HWR_14 wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IE didn't lose in the market when Firefox came along. IE lost when the government fined Microsoft billions of dollars and forced it to relinquish it's monopoly position. Meanwhile the current market is Chrome, reskinned Chrome and Safari. Hardly a healthy marketplace.

> IE lost when the government fined Microsoft billions of dollars and forced it to relinquish it's monopoly position. How did that work? Did they send around an agent to uninstall it from computers one-by-one?

[deleted]

Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#453

Post by nothercastle »

jmalicki wrote: post #417
creer wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TSMC, ASML are as extreme as it gets. You might as well ignore them completely in this thread.

There are local versions - a veterinary emergency hospital with veterinary oncologists and cardiologists in a smaller city without other metros for hundreds of miles, for example.

That’s an example where the market can only support one of there was ever a competitor it would be a question of who runs out of cash first.

Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#454

Post by sologoub »

listenallyall wrote: post #431
sanex wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 years ago or so I had T-Mobile for $50/month unlimited everything. I switched off and just went back for $170 for a phone for my wife and I. To pretend to be comparable on a per line basis they gave me a phone number that I literally could not refuse. Before they bought Sprint we had the magic 4 but now it's 3 and a bunch of resellers.

> 3 and a bunch of resellers. You just explained why prices went up - not because Sprint exited, but because the market bifurcated into prepaid and postpaid. You can get unlimited everything on T-Mobile's network from Mint, for about $30 per month. You just have to pay up front, and you have to bring your own phone. The "majors" have raised prices on 1- and 2- line plans because they are positioning themselves as a p…

There are still feature limitations, such as Apple Watch with same number as your phone, etc.

Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#455

Post by jmalicki »

nothercastle wrote: post #453
jmalicki wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are local versions - a veterinary emergency hospital with veterinary oncologists and cardiologists in a smaller city without other metros for hundreds of miles, for example.

That’s an example where the market can only support one of there was ever a competitor it would be a question of who runs out of cash first.

Which is why no smart competitor would enter into that market - you'd never make back the profits from the price war.

Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#457

Post by scrubadub »

mptest wrote: post #385
scrubadub wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because misogynist and patriarchal (agree with you there) dumbass dems over correct when they finally pick an issue to do something about? Yes, so you agree with me then. As I said in my first comment, this is policy overreach by progressives. They've ended up pushing policy that enables any male who says he's a woman to access any space that was intended to be only for women. This harms women and girls. > > If you…

>Yes, so you agree with me then. As I said in my first comment, this is policy overreach by progressives Yeah, obviously the prison shit is fucked up. And as I've said since the start, democrats are servants of capital, same as the right. But they're not wholly the same. I also recognize project 2025, red state policy goals (read my link to texas GOP platform in another comment in this thread to see their openly fasc…

The reason that we now have such harmful policy that enables any man who says he's a woman to access any space that was intended to be only for women, is because of these sexist redefinitions of "woman" and "man" that have been pushed and promoted as if they're some sort of progressive ideal. People have ended up believing this nonsense to the extent that they'll support law and policy that hurts women and girls, just so some males who claim to be marginalized can have their desires pandered to.

I wouldn't vote for the Republicans either. What I'd like instead is Democrats to understood how regressive and corrosive to women's rights this type of policy is. It's so disappointing that they have such a misogynistic blind spot on sex and gender issues, yet can recognize the importance of women's rights in areas like reproductive choice.

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