Big businesses are the drivers of the American economy. Breaking them up will imperil the economy.
Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon
681–690 of 735 posts
Re: Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon
#682Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Neither of these would do much to increase your ISP options. The first one works if you do it properly. One of the lines of business just operates the physical infrastructure. It not only doesn't provide video service, it doesn't even provide internet service -- the end user is never their customer, their only customers are third party ISPs, who all get the same terms.
There is no "proper" way to do this. The U.K. does what you're describing, and U.S. broadband speeds blow away U.K. broadband speeds: https://www.speedtest.net/reports/united-kingdom/#fixed (UK); https://www.speedtest.net/reports/united-states/2018/fixed/ (US). The physical infrastructure is what makes everything on top of it possible, and at the same time it is one of the most expensive pieces to build, upgrade, and…
I think local loop unbundling in the UK might only apply to telephone lines, not cable or fiber lines. If that's the case, then the speed comparison should be between UK and US DSL service, not UK and US broadband in general.
Re: Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon
#683Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to the December 2017 OECD data, France and the U.S. are basically tied in terms of fiber deployment (12-13% of total broadband connections): https://www.oecd.org/sti/broadband/1.10-PctFibreToTotalBroad... . Which is pretty remarkable because in the U.S., fiber is a relatively smaller upgrade, because fast cable alternatives are available in almost every fiber market. (Just 1/3 of people who can get FiOS act…
Wasn't Verizon given billions in subsidies for FTTH (which they installed on the east and west coast, the most profitable areas) and then sold off vast areas they didn't touch to companies like Frontier?
They certainly weren’t given cash like the french government is doing. The most you can say is that Bell Atlantic, Verizon’s predecessor, was allowed to accelerate depreciation of their copper network more quickly than under the previous tax rules.[1] Whether that amounted to a subsidy depends on how quickly the value of the copper plant decreased after fiber was built. The accelerated depreciation was based on the quite reasonable assumption that the value of the copper network depreciated more quickly after fiber was built. I’ve never seen a calculation refuting that premise.
[1] When you build an income-producing capital asset like copper wire in the ground, you can’t deduct the cost from your revenues immediately for tax purposes, like you can with say employee salaries. Instead, you gradually deduct the capital cost over the income-producing life of the asset. If the government allowes you to depreciate an asset faster than the value of the asset actually drops, that nets you some tax benefit due to the time value of money. On the other hand, if the accelerated depreciation reflects the fact that certain types of assets depreciate quicker, then it will result in the correct amount of taxes being paid. For example IT equipment in data centers can generally be written off immediately—unlike wires in the the ground it’s pretty much worthless after a few years.
Re: Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon
#684Earlier quoted context omitted.
If we had a progressive corporate tax, I think all the problems would sort themselves out. You want to build a trillion dollar company? Fine. Corporate tax rate of 50%. You're a small business with less than $1M in revenue. Cool. Corporate tax rate of 0%. Big companies will break up to take advantage of the tax code. Problem solved. Instead, the bigger you are, the harder you can lobby for tax breaks. Currently, if y…
I agree 100% and have long felt this is the right approach. Basically the bigger you get, the harder it gets to keep getting bigger.
What you propose break economies of scale which are often needed to do something cheaply.
Re: Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon
#685How about going after Comcast and Verizon first, the actual tech monopolies ? I already don’t use Facebook, I buy things online from places other than Amazon, and have email accounts that aren’t hosted by Google. However, all of that goes over Comcast’s network because that’s my only viable choice for Internet service. Also, while FAANG occasionally do things I don’t approve of, they don’t actively lobby congress for…
You don't get it. She's aptly taking advantage of a liberal trend which is negative sentiment to companies causing income stratification in their respective and potential locations. She doesn't really care about the underlying cause. If that was so then your points would be valid. But look at how many news articles got published and how many people are getting excited about the thought. Being against successful techn…
>She doesn't really care about the underlying cause.
She's been calling out large companies for her whole political career, motivated by the inequity she saw in her previous career in bankruptcy law.
Re: Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon
#686Earlier quoted context omitted.
So what about Walmart who does double Amazon in revenue AND has their own private label brands? They have so much retail power they are known to get manufacturers by the balls and make manufacturers accept the cost they want instead.
or Costco? $130B in revenue and I dont hear clamor for Costco to be split from Kirkland. By this logic Apple shouldnt be allowed to have Apps in its App store, right? Or are they banned from selling first and third party phone cases in store? CVS shouldnt be allowed its own generic drugs. At what point does this become "companies arent allowed to make/sell their own products if they also resell other companies produc…
> Warren's team said that the proposal would also apply to Apple. "They would have to structurally separate -- choosing between, for example, running the App Store or offering their own apps,
Re: Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon
#687Earlier quoted context omitted.
She has no proof, she does not need any. this is typical politician using FUD to scare the populace into letting them take actions which in the end only go to bolster their own campaign coffers and personal riches. With the upcoming Presidential campaign you can expect politicians tripping over each other using jealously and fear to get people to plea for action. Amazon is not a Standard Oil by any measure as they ha…
Amazon has competition, but what competitor can afford to intentionally lose millions or billions a year in order to dominate a market segment?
if you rephrase that as "Amazon has competition, but what competitor can afford to intentionally give consumers millions or billions of value a year in order to dominate a market segment?" it seems sort of generous?
they're taking all this money from venture capitalists funding startups running on AWS, and pumping it into their retail operation so that the working class can have cheaper goods.
and everyone involved in the process consents to it, even!
Re: Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon
#688Just wondering how weird would it be if someone at the UN proposed to break up "monopolies" like China it the USA itself. And yet, I suppose a good parallel case can be built in support of this.
NOTE: I'm not dissing the monopolies act and understand the dangers. This is just a thought pointing out different yardsticks for corporations and countries.
Re: Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon
#689Earlier quoted context omitted.
She's called out Comcast before too — don't jump to the conclusion that someone can't chew gum and walk at the same time without at least a 10 second Google.
True. Another commenter linked to an article about Warren ragging on Comcast... back in 2016. What has she done about Comcast since then? Anything?
She's an outspoken supporter of Net Neutrality, which is definitely a stick in the eye for both Comcast and Verizon.
Is there a candidate that has done more than Warren in this regard? (not criticizing, I'm legitimately curious)
Re: Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon
#690Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Also, while FAANG occasionally do things I don’t approve of, they don’t actively lobby congress for things that will make my use of the internet objectively worse (NN, SOPA, etc...). Is this true? It depends on your use of the internet and definitions of “worse”, but I know that both Google and Facebook have been strong opponents of state-level Internet privacy legislation. They also spend huge amounts on lobbying,…
IMO, that is not the point. Lobby spending can be more indicative of a looming regulatory threat than to protect monopolies that harm consumers. I also think that Warren is dead wrong. The internet/FB/GOOGL allow smaller businesses to flourish. 15 years ago, only major brands could afford to advertise or reach an audience, now niche companies can exist with a national or international presence. If anything, these tec…
No doubt the internet itself has created new opportunities for small businesses, but why do you say that huge companies like Facebook and Google needed to accumulate market power to achieve that?