PureX
Veteran Member
Amazon is not a retailer. It's not buying and reselling. As long as Amazon isn't setting prices (like Walmart does) and remains just an online access enabler between buyers and sellers, I don't consider it a monopoly. Or a problem. If they start gouging their users, someone will create an alternative.What do you think about monopolies such as Amazon, Disney and, perhaps to an extent, Twitter? Would you prefer them broken up?
Disney doesn't create and sell anything that anyone cannot easily live without. So it is basically a luxury market. Which means it cannot become a proper monopoly because we can simply decide not to buy what they sell if they try to price-gouge us. And the same is true of Twitter. So these particular examples are not good examples of a monopoly. A good example of a monopoly would be a privatized 'public' utility company. Because they are operating in a very clear and obviously captive market, where the buyers have to "buy or die" and there is no alternative utility company for them to buy from. Leaving their one and only utility provider to charge whatever it wants for the minimum product and service and everyone living in their area will have to pay them because they need it to live.
Health care services, medicines, fuels, transportation, communication, education, housing, and food... these are all captive markets because humans have to buy them, now, to live in a large, modern, inter-dependent society. And these are the markets that invite monopoly and are now effectively being monopolized.
These are the real modern day monopolies: the corporate conglomerates that people never see the face of, but only see the many names and logos under their control.
We go the the store and see all these different brand names on the shelves and we think they are all competing with each other for our business, keeping the prices low and the quality high. But in fact they are all owned and controlled by one or two giant corporate conglomerates that are seeking to exploit our ignorance for their profit. And even when they are competing with each other, they still aren't going to lower prices and raise quality because NONE OF THEM have that as their goal. Their goal is just the opposite. So all competition does is make them cautious as they mutually raise their prices and cut their quality. Because that is their ultimate goal. In fact, if they could find a way to charge us every penny we have, and give us NOTHING in return, that would be their ultimate "trade". Because that's an absolute maximum profit for them.
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