[deathgrips]

I like Standard Oil. How about we let people buy from the businesses they want to?

[alexmingoia]

Yeah, letting people buy from businesses they choose sounds good.

Standard oil was a great company, that benefited consumers by driving down costs and improving the efficiency of oil production and distribution. Prices fell from ~30 cents to ~5 cents per gallon between 1870-1900, and when they were broken up by the government they had more than 100 competitors, and only ~65% market share.

[411111111111111]

They were benefiting shareholders and consumers of that age at the detriment of society.

Slavery also invigorates the markets with cheap produce for consumers and high profits for shareholders. Shall we legalize that as well?

Nothing is easy in reality and you can find positive effects to the markets in almost anything if you just look at localized effects