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Elizabeth Warren Says Apple, Amazon and Google Are Trying To 'Lock Out' Competition (recode.net)
Elizabeth Warren, an American academic and member of the Democratic Party, believes that Google, Apple, and Amazon are trying to use their size to "snuff out competition." In a speech about the perils of "consolidation and concentration" throughout the economy, the Massachusetts senator singled out the three of tech's biggest players. From a report:Warren had different beefs with Google, Apple and Amazon, but the common thread was that she accused each one of using its powerful platform to "lock out smaller guys and newer guys," including some that compete with Google, Apple and Amazon. Google, she said, uses "its dominant search engine to harm rivals of its Google Plus user review feature;" Apple "has placed conditions on its rivals that make it difficult for them to offer competitive streaming services" that compete with Apple Music; and Amazon "uses its position as the dominant bookseller to steer consumers to books published by Amazon to the detriment of other publishers.""Google, Apple and Amazon have created disruptive technologies that changed the world, and ... they deserve to be highly profitable and successful," Warren said. "But the opportunity to compete must remain open for new entrants and smaller competitors that want their chance to change the world again."
I'm glad to see she understands the first rule of business.
Pulling up the ladder behind you is a STAPLE of the current tech company leadership.
I think you have to define a line for "individual liberty". That is, where does individual liberty meet the collective (arrangement)?
Does whoever wrote the summary know that Elizabeth Warren's day job is as a sitting United States Senator? Apparently not.
Somewhere along the way corporations stopped being corporate citizens that gave back to the local community to being multi-national corporations that don't care about the local community of any nation. Given enough bad PR by community activists and politicians, multi-national corporations can be shamed into doing the right thing for the local community.
so her posturing against companies that use government to shut the door behind them to keep competition out are a bit disingenuous
No, it is not. The only way a monopoly can exist is through government protection. Her "posturing" is spot on.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
"...Apple, Amazon and Google Are Trying To 'Lock Out' Competition"
Oh my gawd, say it isn't so.
Seriously, no shit, of COURSE they're trying to lock out competition. In the "Quest For More Dollars" game they'd send death squads around to the other company's Boards Of Directors if they thought they could get away with it. It's all about the benjamins, and killing off the competition (or stifling them) by whatever means necessary is Job One.
This is "news" in the same way that "water is wet" or "criminals commit crimes" is "news".
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Big tech execs are in big heap trouble...until they share wampum with Democrats.
The only way a monopoly can exist is through government protection.
You have it exactly backwards. The only way competition exists in certain (most?) sectors is due to government protection.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
Both are correct.
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The problem is that a collective (like a society) is more than just a bunch of people crammed together.
It is a bunch of people who have to cooperate with each other. Cooperation requires limiting selfish indulgences, and defining where one person's rights end, and another's begins. Eg, if I am a home owner who is a lazy slob who harbors trash, my freedom to be a willful slob creates a haven for vermin that accosted my neighbors, bease the vermin don't stay put. To satisfy the neighbor's rights to keep their homes free of vermin, my right to be a slob has to be infringed.
We do not live in a universe where ideal fantasies about personal liberty can be realistically entertained.
That is what people try to tell you. You are the one not understanding.
Google and Apple are big supporters of liberal causes. Someone better get Warren back on the reservation.
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Maybe I'd take what Senators say more seriously if D.C. didn't have a history of bailing out big monopolies that lock out smaller competitors like the big three. It just comes off as disingenuous to me, as there is some ulterior motive at play.
The cynic in me wonders if these tech companies aren't greasing the palms of the right people on the east coast.
>> The only way competition exists in certain (most?) sectors is due to government protection.
>
> That's a baldfaced lie.
This is why the Sherman anti-trust act exists. Monopolies are very easy to create in an unregulated economy. Even Smith acknowledged this fact.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
This fallacy rich quote proves that.
What fallacy exactly? Businesses — or individuals — don't exist separately from society and government. We're all in this together as a country for the last 240 years.
You don't need to get into the money for the hypocrisy.
Both the DNC and the GOP are quite guilty of using their dominant positions in politics to keep other parties from gaining any kind of traction.
She is not being hypocritical, since she has also spoken out about the influence of big money on politics.
And then she gets on the stage with the biggest Big Money candidate there is, and shouts, "I'm with her!"
I'm fine with people donating to campaigns. I'm not fine with blatant hypocrisy.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Monopolies are very easy to create in an unregulated economy.
Nope. In an unregulated economy, the only way to make a monopoly is by offering your products or services at a better price than your competition. Rockefeller came close, and he did so by drastically reducing his costs *and* prices.
Even Smith acknowledged this fact.
Smith subscribed to a common misconception. That doesn't make him right.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."