By this I just mean it is general observation in company when they become large. If we are to support free market. Big companies are not be allowed to exist, it just encourage mon/dup/oli gopoly and hinter economic optimisation.
One of the issues I see with this is that the free market encourages companies to try to become a monopoly/oligopoly, because it's the only way to sustain profits in the normal idealized market models.
So you can't support the free market and not allow big companies to exist at the same time.
Instead I think it would be honest to say that we don't want free markets, because they have inherent issues that are detrimental to people. At the same time we don't want planned markets which have historically failed as well.
Instead there must either be a better paradigm or a sweet spot in between (e.g. a well regulated somewhat free market).
Big companies become big because they find a loophole and way to exploit it. Normal businesses don't get big. This is an anomaly, an edge case. We need regulation that will be dividing companies when they become too big. Just like cells divide in nature. We also need to review offshore ownership and make sure they pay the same tax as smaller businesses. You cannot have a small struggling shop paying 40% and big guy only 1% if anything.
>Big companies become big because they find a loophole and way to exploit it. Normal businesses don't get big.
That's a non sequitur. A lot of "normal businesses" became big.
In any case, Apple didn't become big because they found a "loophole". They were on the brink of bunrupcty and become big because they put out product after product that people liked: the first iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad.
And they didn't even compete on cheaper prices, undercuttting the competition by throwing VC money (a trick Amazon did): they did it while selling only on the higher end of the market, and charging the same or more than their PC/mobile competitors.
Oh, and for the most part they didn't even do it though marketing either. Their ad budget was laughable and less than half to 1/5th compared to competitors for the first 15 years. Heck, Samsung used double to triple Apple's ad budget, and Google used 1/2 Apple's budget on just a single phone product.
> One of the issues I see with this is that the free market encourages companies to try to become a monopoly/oligopoly, because it's the only way to sustain profits in the normal idealized market models.
The idealized market models are models. It doesn't work like that in real life.
Example: McDonald's. They have all the competition in the world. Restaurants are one of the closest markets to idealized perfect competition there is. But McDonald's still makes plenty of money. Because as close as restaurants are to the ideal, the ideal doesn't actually happen in real life.
Coca Cola, Nike, Toyota, Starbucks. These are all multi-billion dollar companies with nothing even resembling a monopoly.
Actually you can support free markets and prevent large corporations
Most large corporations become large not purely on market forces but because of Regulatory capture where by they slam the door on competing businesses by passing "consumer friendly" regulations that is in reality more focused on preventing new comers to the market
Why do you think Facebook is soo hell bent on getting regluations from the government on social media, because they know they will be one of the "stakeholders" that will help write them thus ensuring their market dominance
Why do you think Amazon is now in favor of National Sales Tax regulations, because now that they have to pay sales tax in all 50 states is favors them to have 1 regulation vs 3000
Why do you think Walmart now favors raising the minimum wage, because social and economic pressure has forced them to raise their own wages so they want to ensure all companies have to pay the same wages they are
Point to any large company that is in a position of market dominance and I will show the government regulations that allow them to operate in that way
hell the very basis of the corporation is a fictitious entity created by government to limit liability, the laws around those corporations (especially public corporations) are government regulations written by large corporations for their benefit, That is not a free market at all
> Why do you think Facebook is soo hell bent on getting regluations from the government on social media
What truly threatens these corporations isn't regulation, in fact I'd wager they're counting on it. The real threat is the next Instagram that walks through the door that doesn't sell to FB. Basically, the biggest threat to FB is the fact that people don't really care about FB, they just want something to look at on their phones. It's totally in FB's best interest then to make it more difficult for competition to invent new ways to look for people to look at their phones.
Banking and finance in general is probably the best example. It's so difficult to start a bank these days that your best bet is to acquire a failing one.
However, on this point:
> Point to any large company that is in a position of market dominance and I will show the government regulations that allow them to operate in that way
I don't really see how Apple falls under this category? I can see it for Amazon, Netflix, Walmart, Google, Facebook, etc... but what about Apple?
Apple is a wierd case, I agree. because while they are powerful they do not really have anywhere close to a monopoly, iPhone account for less than 35% of all mobile devices in the world, 50% in the US. It is a duopoly though with Android.
This Duopoly is largely supported because of FCC Regulations and carrier restrictions it is very hard to get access to Wireless frequencies and ever harder to do that nation wide, given this it is hard to deploy a mobile device in the US.
Apple then relies upon Copyright and Contract law both of which are favorable to large companies not consumers to ensure their market dominance by making it impossible to create interoperability between their ecosystem and others.
Then you have the various Tax and general business regulations that favor all Large companies, some of which in general prohibit smaller companies from growing.
AND it is Big Brother in its “1984” ad. “We will prevail!”
Ironic, isn’t it
PS: Why don’t the people here combine forces and capital to create a video and privately registered website like apple1984.com (I think trademarks can be used for criticism, otherwise just use 1984 plus something) and actually run this ad to shame apple on various social media and youtube? DoubleTwist did.
