The idea that a company can do anything to create or perpetuate a monopoly so long as its prices go down and/or its quality goes up is directly to blame for the rise of Big Tech. These companies burned through their investors’ cash for years, selling goods and services below cost, or even giving stuff away for free. Think of Uber, who lost $0.41 on every dollar they brought in for their first 13 years of existence, a move that cost their investors (mostly Saudi royals) $31 billion.
The monopoly cheerleaders in the consumer welfare camp understood that these money-losing orgies could not go on forever, and that the investors who financed them weren’t doing so for charitable purposes. But they dismissed the possibility that would-be monopolists could raise prices after attaining dominance, because these prices hikes would bring new competitors into the market, starting the process over again.
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The same fellow wrote the Wired article, btw!
The Wired article was reprinted from its original version on pluralistic.net, which is Cory Doctorow’s website.
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Maybe a rip-off, but Amazon and other online retailers shook up the Australian market and I’m thankful for that.
Before we were so small there was no competition and local stores would gauge consumers, now they’re challenged and have to compete with the rest of the world.
You could say the prices were… Criminal.
Yeah, so far, it’s been OK here. Not incredible, not shit - just OK. We still have an issue of range of selection with Amazon here in Australia. I’m finding plenty of things I search for have to come from international sellers, with longer deliveries and/or at higher prices.
But, for average crap (need that replacement USB cable for my daughter’s tablet tomorrow, can’t find the time to get to the shops today), it’s hard to beat Amazon in Australia right now.
Economists of the classical school were right to define a monopoly as a government-grant privilege, for gaining legal rights to be a preferred producer is the only way to maintain a monopoly in a market setting. Predatory pricing cannot be sustained over the long haul, and not even the attempt should be regretted since it is a great benefit to consumers. Attempted cartel-type behavior typically collapses, and where it does not, it serves a market function. The term “monopoly price” has no effective meaning in real market settings, which are not snapshots in time but processes of change. A market society needs no antitrust policy at all; indeed, the state is the very source of the remaining monopolies we see in education, law, courts, and other areas.
Amazon is just another big company that benefits from corporatocracy.
Absolutely high prices and absolute crap that is worse than eBay that from 1t years ago. I avoid.gor.maything that needs to be okay quality or can get in the £1 shop
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People tend to forget that governments are also just another company where you are its employee. It will make business-deals with other companies for (you guessed it) money…
