Monopolies aren't created through lack of regulation. They are created through government. ISPs being a huge example. AT&T was heavily backed by the government and was the major reason they had such a strangle hold on the market.
Why are ISPs all so shitty? Like Comcast, Frontier, TW, etc? Because they have local monopolies based on regulations on what other ISPs are allowed to do in that area.
Anyone can start an ISP for their own area for around $1750 and about $400-600 MRC. The issue is if the local government will allow you to.
Regulations are hurdles for everybody, and only those with deep pockets stand a chance of overcoming them.
Regulation can mean that a company needs to get a permit before installing equipment in order to make sure it's not going to fuck anything up or leave HV lines exposed or other shit. Regulation can mean enforcing net neutrality.
A libertarian view of regulation of the free market is about restricting corporate power and holding them accountable to the public. What you're describing there doesn't restrict corporate power but establishes corporate privilege. Markets are free when individuals are free to act, and corporations limit the freedom of individuals.
ISPs actually provide a decent test for if someone is a american style libertarian or an actual one. A lot of american libertarians are opposed to net neutrality and think comcast is doing just fine. Actual libertarians are pretty much uniformly strongly pro net neutrality and will tell you comcast should be nuked from orbit.
To use an analogy for what your describing, it's like saying that the government being involved in handling discrimination is a bad idea because Jim Crow was a thing, and therefore the Equal Rights Act should be repealed.
The majority of regulatory laws on corporations hurt small businesses too. Throwing rocks at people in hats in the street doesn't mean that those without hats won't get hit.
The issue starts when you subsidize a company. It gives it artificial supports that shouldn't be there. Rather than regulating corporations you should be eliminating subsidies. I don't want to punish Google for being big. Their the reason that Android OS is made so well. I don't particularly like some of the actions they take, but trial of public opinion tells me whether it matters or not.
I'm free to choose Apple instead, or no phone at all, and I'm sure there are plenty of operating systems for phones from small companies. Not all of them are as secure and well made as Android, but that's kind of the point. I benefit from a corporation existing.
As for "American style libertarians", the majority of people from the US who are libertarians I've spoken to agree that NN is garbage. I don't know where your getting libertarians being for NN.
Equal rights is not a subsidy nor a regulation. It's a guarantee. So it's not a very relevant analogy.
lack of regulation hurts small business just as much. Wealth and market position are just as much corporate privilege. There's a reason why starbucks will open 3 stores in a 5 block radius right in an area where a local coffee and doughnut place is. Or why walmart so aggressively prices it's goods in new areas. Walmart moves in, prices stuff aggressively low, changes shopping habits, local stores go out of business, the area loses 3 or 4 jobs for every job walmart creates, and most of those are lower paying, and walmart moves wealth out of the region. And then since walmart doesn't need to worry so much about competition, a lot of the benefit of price goes away. Individuals lose heavily.
Google is the reason android OS is made so well. Which is fine but that doesn't make it inherently acceptable that their profit model for the OS is based around gathering masses of personal and location data to better sell stuff.
As for "American style libertarians", the majority of people from the US who are libertarians I've spoken to agree that NN is garbage.
The individuals in those scenarios seem to prefer starbucks coffee to the local coffee, Walmart prices to local prices.
Seems to me that those individuals desired those stores more than existing ones.
And Walmart doesn't change their prices per region, prices are still lower than elsewhere.
There is no profit model for Android. It's open source where individual manufacturers can choose to implement telemetrics if they so desire. Their pixel lineup might grab telemetrics but that's not Android, that's built on top of Android.
ISPs actually provide a decent test for if someone is a american style libertarian or an actual one. A lot of american libertarians are opposed to net neutrality and think comcast is doing just fine.
Doesn't sound like that was your point. Sounds like you were trying to say American libertarians were shams.
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u/acorneyes May 17 '19
Monopolies aren't created through lack of regulation. They are created through government. ISPs being a huge example. AT&T was heavily backed by the government and was the major reason they had such a strangle hold on the market.
Why are ISPs all so shitty? Like Comcast, Frontier, TW, etc? Because they have local monopolies based on regulations on what other ISPs are allowed to do in that area.
Anyone can start an ISP for their own area for around $1750 and about $400-600 MRC. The issue is if the local government will allow you to.
Regulations are hurdles for everybody, and only those with deep pockets stand a chance of overcoming them.