> a great US institution
replySo, too big to fail, but to small to be a monopoly that abuses it's power?
I'm more on your side than most but surely you don't think zero antitrust enforcement is best for our country?
replywho is to say that it is great. what makes it so, why is that valuable. Is doing more good than harm. that there is even some inherent value in a "great institution". A bunch of smaller companies would probably be better economically and be more innovative.
replyAh yes, the great US institution of ad tech. Mass privacy intrusion in the service of selling clicks for a nickel.
replyStalin wishes he had this much reach
reply> colincowardly
replyAppropriate last name. So any institution that lies, cheats, and steals their way to top is absolved of all wrongdoing just because they got to the top?
I kinda somewhat reluctantly agree with you, and I think other commenters are missing the point that breaking up Google may allow non-US competitors to rise up and take Google's place on the world stage. Thus, breaking them up is not in the national interest of the US.
replyIf Alphabet allows a non-US competitor to replace them, isn't it their fault for failing to compete? The threat of replacement is supposed to be what motivates Alphabet to innovate.
replyIt could also be argued that allowing Alphabet to sustain anticompetitive damages is exactly what creates the opportunity for them to be replaced. Alternatives to AdSense and YouTube can only succeed in America if Alphabet rests on their laurels and is artificially defended from natural price competition.
As long as there are many competitors, that's better than a monopoly, even if some of the competitors are foreign. Powerful monopolists restricting our freedoms is not in the interest of Americans long-term.
reply> As long as there are many competitors, that's better than a monopoly, even if some of the competitors are foreign
replyHow do you prevent another monopoly from forming from a different country than your own?
Same way you prevent monopolies based in your own country from forming. Anti-trust regulation. Your country's government controls how companies operate inside it
replyCapitalism requires some level of regulation to avoid eating itself.
replyBring back Ma Bell and Standard Oil they were great US institutions!
replyStandard Oil was sued for keeping low prices thanks to vertical integration prompting the classic quip about antitrust litigation.
replyCompanies like modern Google should not be permissible in the even firster place.
replySo because Google monopolizes on a big enough scale, suddenly they are too important to break up? I would argue that if any single company is big enough to where if it were to break up it would be "against the national interest," then it is too big and must be broken up.
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