[sokoloff]

I'm much more sympathetic to arguments about what's good for people (consumers) than I am to what's good for competitors.

I think people would be made worse off if Amazon's retail operations were to be made worse (or shut down in the limit case).

[Chris2048]

For Amazons customers, yes - but competing offerings might be better off - by creating a gap in the market that might be filled by more motivated businesses.

[spaetzleesser]

"I think people would be made worse off if Amazon's retail operations were to be made worse (or shut down in the limit case).

"

Maybe short term but the in the long term I think everybody would be better off with more smaller competitors instead of a few dominant ones. Same for Apple. I don't think their size is good for the economy or technology in the long run.

[PoignardAzur]

Isn't that arguing in favor of unfair competition (specifically undercutting), in a roundabout way?

[sokoloff]

One person's undercutting is another person's competition.

There's nothing wrong or anti-competitive about undercutting another retailer. At some point, you can get into anti-competitive predatory pricing or "dumping", but I don't think anyone is credibly arguing that Amazon is dumping product below their cost.