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Ends, Means, and Antitrust (stratechery.com)
Analyst Ben Thompson on the European Commission's $2.7 billion fine levied on Google for anti-competitive behavior: The United States and European Union have, at least since the Reagan Administration, differed on this point: the U.S. is primarily concerned with consumer welfare, and the primary proxy is price. In other words, as long as prices do not increase -- or even better, decrease -- there is, by definition, no illegal behavior.
The European Commission, on the other hand, is explicitly focused on competition: monopolistic behavior is presumed to be illegal if it restricts competitors which, in the theoretical long run, hurts consumers by restricting innovation.
The European Commission, on the other hand, is explicitly focused on competition: monopolistic behavior is presumed to be illegal if it restricts competitors which, in the theoretical long run, hurts consumers by restricting innovation.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Yet manufacturers in the U.S. continually change content while keeping the same package size in order to fool consumers into thinking nothing has changed. In these cases, the prices haven't dropped, but the value has. ie...business as usual.
the U.S. is primarily concerned with consumer welfare
Tell that to the 22 million health care consumers who are going to be cut to give a tax break to millionaires. If they really cared, and cared about lowest cost, they'd bring in single payer universal healthcare. The cutbacks to the EPA that will result in dirtier air, higher fossil fuel consumption and pollution, and less water quality monitoring. And if you're going to use price as a proxy for caring, it's pretty damned obvious that the US is not considered with the rate of inflation of education leaving students looking at a lifetime of debt.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
The EU Commission does the work of the market courts, while the US does the work of the consumer rights authorities. So maybe there could be a specialized EU market court to lessen the load of the Commission and the Court of Justice, and maybe there could be am authoritative consumer rights office in the US government that could lessen the load on the other branches of the government?
The USA has a unique culture that was bought by the Puritan work ethic that promoted individualism and self improvement.
A good explanation is the three stages of maturity.
Dependance (child), Independance (teen), Interdependence (adult)
The USA seems to revere Independence, where Europe, Oceania focus more on interdependence.
Americans confuse this with socialism/communism and have a great fear that someone may undeservedly benefit from their labor. I can assure you being in one of these 'socialist' countries, that the benefits outweigh disadvantages.
Universal healthcare is terrific. Proper limits on monopolies. Much better support for poor people so they don't resort to crime. Higher minimum wages so low socioeconomic people can afford to live and spend it into their communities. Running prisons to reform rather than profit. Even better public transit systems.
Unfortunately, I don't see any cultural changes on the horizon.
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But you can't measure the difference between price in the case of a monopoly and price in the case of a competitive market. One or other won't exist. Of course, that's probably the objective of using price as the measure.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Unlike when msft made it hard to use another browser on Windows, it's trivial for Europeans to use another search engine, if they find that Google biases search. TFA was so much academic blather.
Personally, Google ought to back out of the EU - turn it off for a month - take the ad revenue hit, just to make a point. Have the voters revolt.
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In other news, a lyft driver in sfo told me that the balance seems to be shifting between lyft and Uber...
Google isn't forcing anyone to use their services. It's just that the EU is bankrupt, morally and financially, so they're just looking for a way to steal money. Who can blame them? It's how they are. Europe has always the world's troublemaker. If not for the USA they would still be in constant feudal warfare... Thank god for America! Still the greatest country in the history of the universe. But they've let this go on too long. It's time to finish the war.
Fits.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
That tells you competition is vital, otherwise companies raise prices as high as they can.
In other words, the EU is correct, the US is wrong (again).
EU is influenced by German ordoliberalism, which considers that the market is the goal.
US is much more pragmatic and just want to fix one of capitalism's flaws that promotes its self-destruction.
The break up of AT&T happened under Reagan. And it certainly could not have happened because of prices. There was nothing to compare the prices to. AT&T had absolute monopoly on the phone lines. Phone call prices were not rising faster than the rate of inflation. And yet the company was broken up because it was a monopoly. The fact that is subsequently nearly remerged is irrelevant, by the way. It still goes contrary to the premise of the article, which contends that it is the US regulators' actions were driven exclusively by prices.
Be a LEFT Agenda is the Only Headlines I see on slashdot These days Tell me why that is???
Google doesn't deal in simple transactions, money for a product.
They scrape the web, and everything else they can get at, for data the public might view on their own, then show suggestions and glimpses in return for knowing what you're interested in and the opportunity of manipulating your decisions.
The real price is the effect. Google provides information: tailored, censored, and selective to serve their purposes, and those of whoever pays them. How do you put a dollar figure on manipulation?
1) Some services cost no money but are still a monopoly instead they cost other things, such as privacy. Prime example: Facebook.
2) When technology is advancing fast, prices drop. Or they do if their is competition. But a monopoly could simply maintain their current price and claim "Hey, we aren't anti-competitive, our prices haven't changed. We still sell our phone with a 1 MP camera, 2 inch display, and 5 whole megabytes of memory for a mere $749, just like we did in 1999."
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
How much did the Microsoft proxies spend on this campaign, as we all know who's really back of it. Microsoft has been desperate to catch up to Google for ages.
It hit me recently there is a fundamental difference between what the USA idealizes in democracy/freedom and what continental Europe does and it boils down to this. In a free democratic society two huge factors are individual liberty and equality. USA democracy (and to some extent other heavily British influenced democracies) prioritize individual liberty over equality whereas France and other continental democracies prioritize equality over liberty.