[morningmoon]

Breakup Facebook rhetoric is so counterproductive. It achieves nothing. It solves no problem.

The country has real problems. “I don’t like Facebook” isn’t even remotely one of them. I won’t be voting for her, that’s for sure.

[tropdrop]

This is a very short-sighted interpretation of the "break up Facebook & co." campaign. It is not about Facebook per se, but about the surprising power of tech giants - do you use Google? How about the internet?

Don't think this is a real issue? How about looking at some of the other "real" problems she's addressed in her platform before outright dismissal? The kind of impulsive, single-issue voting you're implicitly advocating for here is exactly what the country does not need.

[morningmoon]

Yes, I use Google and the Internet. What's the problem?

To contrast this with healthcare. I can understand diabetics not being able to afford medication for example, or people without the means to afford life sustaining treatments.

Facebook buying Instagram? I don't understand what's wrong with that.

[ktjfi]

While real problems are largely ignored, stupid stuff like this takes up all the airtime and moves a sizable amount of votes. Democracy is just a way of keeping the masses docile.

[int_19h]

Have you actually seen the proposal? It's not specifically about Facebook, they just happen to be a good example of market failure that she wants to prevent.

[morningmoon]

I read her blog post. I don't see anywhere in her post that gives one concrete example of a negative impact on consumers.

She gives the example of Amazon.com forcing diapers.com to sell diapers at a lower price as a reason for why we need to prevent acquisitions. But getting products for cheaper prices benefits consumers... The small business founders got rich and consumers got cheaper diapers. I'm not seeing any problem with that.

She claims Amazon is anti-competitive because they promote their own products on their own website. Websites aren't railroads. Consumers can choose any website by typing in the address in their web browser. Consumers can switch search engines and shopping websites. That was not the case with railroads or phone networks - because for reasons that should be very obvious you can't have a million different railroad lines and telephone wires. Unlike the web, they were physically mutually exclusive.

If a company provided superior service and prices to Amazon consumers can easily choose to use them.

[int_19h]

You might find a problem with that arrangement when you need to buy something that Amazon doesn't or won't carry, and there's nobody else in town (because they can't survive on such products alone). Or as a manufacturer who makes a new and better product compared to something that they have, but who can't find a sales channel for it. Or as someone who is unhappy with some of Amazon's practices - say, how they treat their employees.

And competition doesn't just show up out of thin air - you need a healthy free market for companies to get to the point where they can challenge the market leader. If you allow the monopolist to dominate the market, they will never get there, and there won't be anything for consumers to easily choose from.

In general, concentration of power is dangerous. Few people dispute this with governments - it's not like we wait for them to become authoritarian, we write constitutions that have arrangements that deliberately cripple their ability to do so (separation of powers etc). Why should it be any different for large corporations, when we know from history that monopoly abuse is the most likely outcome?

[morningmoon]

You might find a problem with that arrangement when you need to buy something that Amazon doesn't or won't carry, and there's nobody else in town

Why would Amazon not selling something prevent someone else from selling it?

[null000]

Market concentration causes huge problems - outsized lobbying power, increased wealth concentration, potential for judicial abuse, unbalanced power dynamics (e.g. between youtube and it's content creators, or Amazon and its sellers) and so on.