Take a moment and wax nostalgic…….a song from my youth…..ah the memories!
But in this case it is not some song from my past but rather a proposal from 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, Elizabeth Warren……
She has a proposal to break-up giants like amazon, Google and Facebook……along the lines of the break-up of AT&T in the 1980s into regional entities……
Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled her plan for how to break up the nation’s technology behemoths on Friday.
The Democratic senator from Massachusetts, who’s seeking the Democratic nomination for president, laid out her proposal in a Medium post entitled “Here’s How We Can Break Up Big Tech.” In the post, Warren argued that it’s essential to crack down on the unfair market advantage enjoyed by Amazon, Facebook, and Google in order to boost competition and fuel innovation.
Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout praised the plan, calling it as a sign that a “new anti-monopoly movement is happening, and Warren is coming out swinging at the right targets!” Agreeing with Warren, she added, “The big tech monsters are conglomerates with too much power that they use to extract wealth and data from all us of us as if we are subjects in their feudal regimes.”
Personally, I like the idea…..but if her consumer protection agency from the 2000s is any indication this will nit go very far…….if the Senate does not crap on the proposal then the big money donors will chip away at it until it is just a shadow of the original proposal.
Elizabeth Warren wants a fair playing field in the marketplace—and she’s going after Big Tech to make it happen. “To restore the balance of power in our democracy, to promote competition, and to ensure that the next generation of technology innovation is as vibrant as the last, it’s time to break up our biggest tech companies,” she said in a statement Friday, per the New York Times. Her plan to bust up giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon is a two-tiered one: First, large firms with annual global revenue of $25 billion or more that offer an online marketplace or other type of platform that connects third parties would have to “structurally separate” their products from that marketplace. What that means, for example, is that if you do a Google search for a restaurant, Google can’t give its own ratings priority over, say, Yelp’s, notes Vox.
The second tier—companies with annual revenue between $90 million and $25 billion—wouldn’t be subject to that same sort of product-marketplace separation, but they would have to adhere to certain fair-use regulations. Another big move Warren’s plan is pushing for: reversing some recent mergers that the 2020 presidential candidate says cut down down healthy competition, including Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, as well as Amazon scooping up Whole Foods. This move, Warren says, “will put pressure on big tech companies to be more responsive to user concerns, including about privacy.” Critics commenting on Warren’s proposal fear such a plan could lead to the “weaponizing” of antitrust laws (lawmakers could go after companies they don’t like), per the Times, or reduce convenience for consumers, Ars Technica notes
This is fascinating……I want to see where it will go……I like it, as I have said…..this should have been done years ago…..
That is very interesting…I don’t usually follow politics… but you got my attention…I appreciate your breaking up is hard to do post…I will be paying attention to how that is handled
I recall the break up of AT&T to increase competition and lower prices actually drove up prices. AT&T was so big it could absorb losses in less profitable aspects of the business yet still offer lower prices for consumers because its reach was so vast and inclusive so profitable aspects subsidized less profitable aspects giving customers comparatively lower rates for which smaller entities could not provide at a profit. .
I liked Warren at start of her career. Seemed like a Teddy Roosevelt trust buster and like whistle blowing muckraker authors of the period but moved too far left on things now for me. Keep boundaries to protect citizens on capitalism seems sensible govt interference in free market to me but now the switch is complete socialism which will tax the societal wealth creators to impotency to innovate and create more wealth to be distrubuted by wages and investments of working class.
In Saner Thought 
Richard Stallman has the idea of using a progressive corporate tax to seduce big corporation to break themselves up – as this would save them of paying tax… http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/02/04/fixing-too-big-to-fail/
Thanx for the link…..I like good economic stuff…..chuq
I’m wondering how much they will come up with to pay her off, and allow the idea to disappear.
Call me cynical…(Because I am) 🙂
Best wishes, pete.
This will die because of the old fart cowards in Congress….they pretend to be Moderates…..chuq
That is very interesting…I don’t usually follow politics… but you got my attention…I appreciate your breaking up is hard to do post…I will be paying attention to how that is handled
I am glad you liked the post….and I appreciate your comment……chuq
There us a time to break up large companies or force them to stop certain practices. Don’t know enough on these three companies to have an opinion.
It is a good idea…..chuq
I recall the break up of AT&T to increase competition and lower prices actually drove up prices. AT&T was so big it could absorb losses in less profitable aspects of the business yet still offer lower prices for consumers because its reach was so vast and inclusive so profitable aspects subsidized less profitable aspects giving customers comparatively lower rates for which smaller entities could not provide at a profit. .
These are basically tech companies…their price increase will effect s small number of people considering if that is the outcome…..chuq
I liked Warren at start of her career. Seemed like a Teddy Roosevelt trust buster and like whistle blowing muckraker authors of the period but moved too far left on things now for me. Keep boundaries to protect citizens on capitalism seems sensible govt interference in free market to me but now the switch is complete socialism which will tax the societal wealth creators to impotency to innovate and create more wealth to be distrubuted by wages and investments of working class.
She is a capitalist……she proved that by her silence when the Obama people gutted the consumer protection proposal……she is NO socialist….chuq
https://invertedlogicblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/07/political-opinions-62-elizabeth-warren-vs-amazon/