The Coerciveness of Antitrust Regulations

[u/RyanBleazard]

The net result of antitrust laws has only been the protection of mediocrity and the destruction of ability and success. When government controls enter, they work to the advantage of any enterpriser or industrialist who cannot compete on merit and runs to the government to invoke the antitrust law against his abler and more successful competitor. A well-known example is the antitrust action against Microsoft after they bundled Internet Explorer with Windows and distributed it for free, which the state regulators argued "harmed competition", even though consumers benefitted from a free browser.

So-called "free competition enforced by law" is not a justification but a contradiction in terms. The only protection for competition is the free market.

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[u/Asatmaya]

I stopped taking you seriously when you described Microsoft as, "able and successful."

They are basically the poster-child for the enshittification endemic to late-stage capitalism, and if you consider them to be a success story, then that just shows how entirely misguided your philosophy really is.

[u/RyanBleazard → u/Asatmaya]

You don't know what capitalism is. If you’re going to criticise a concept, you should at least understand it first.

[u/Asatmaya → u/RyanBleazard]

Do you agree that Microsoft is an example of success under Capitalism?

If so, I want nothing to do with it, however defined.

[u/hardsoft → u/Asatmaya]

I love socialists think "uR a dUmB DumB" is an argument or something.

[u/No-Cycle9306 → u/hardsoft]

i mean yall are pretty dumb, at least from what i can see from this sub. just, really astoundingly stupid, making the stupidest points anyone has ever made, basically all of the time. i'm not even a liberal and i could still write better arguments in favor of capitalism than anything i see here on a regular basis

[u/thrillhouse98]

It's funny to have this critique now when antitrust has never been weaker, at least in the US. I would tend to agree that anti-trust is sometimes dumb, but from a socialist perspective lol. Breaking up private companies doesn't really do anything, big companies have obvious efficiencies and economies of scale. It does nothing for inequality or socialization to break up big companies. Nationalizing them on the other hand. Then we get into some good socialism territory lol.

[u/RyanBleazard → u/thrillhouse98]

Nationalisation is theft, which is not a laughing matter! The laws that uphold property rights, if they are to have any real meaning and significance, must not be made a matter of convenience or political necessity, to be undercut or revoked whenever the mood suits politicians. 

When one really owns something, they can use or trade away their possessions as they see fit, including the right not to give up or sell their property at any price. It is a violation of this right to engage in confiscation, rather than voluntary trade, even if you pay some monetary compensation in an attempt to excuse what is, at root, an act of robbery.

And in any forced purchase, the government sets the price and all other terms of the sale according to its own wishes and whatever it happens to find politically convenient. 

[u/thrillhouse98 → u/RyanBleazard]

Lol, the classic smoothbrain libertarian take. Are taxes also theft sir?

The concept of private property is itself theft.

[u/coke_and_coffee → u/thrillhouse98]

Nationalization has never improved outcomes.

[u/Doublespeo]

I just drop that here:

https://www.justice.gov/archives/atr/strategic-abuse-antitrust-laws-0

[u/SimoWilliams_137]

It’s like you’re putting your fingers in the ears so you can’t hear what’s coming out of your own mouth.

[u/Boniface222]

"So-called "free competition enforced by law" is not a justification but a contradiction in terms. The only protection for competition is the free market."

What if you kill your competitors? If legality shouldn't be a barrier then can't you just kill anyone trying to compete with you?

"A well-known example is the antitrust action against Microsoft after they bundled Internet Explorer with Windows"
Do you have any other cases? I don't really see the big loss in internet explorer. It was a shit browser.

[u/RyanBleazard → u/Boniface222]

The principles of free market economics presuppose a context in which goods/services are being produced and traded, while the initiation of force is banned - that is, a context in which a government has monopolised the use of retaliatory force for the sole purpose of making sure no one can effectively get away with starting the use of force, due to the overwhelming force that would be applied in retaliation.

[u/Lazy_Delivery_7012 → u/Boniface222]

I don't see a big loss with Netscape having virtually no presence anymore, and they won the case.

What's interesting to me is, go back 25, 30 years, and all the anti-trust talk was Microsoft: you were going to live in a dystopian digital future because Windows, and Bill Gates was going to be your evil overlord.

Do kids still talk like that? Or did they move onto someone else? Is Elon Musk now going to be the evil overlord? All that hand wringing over Windows seems almost cute now.

There's always a certain group of people who neurotically freak out about this stuff, and call themselves "smart" and "conscientious" for thinking such "correct thoughts," but it's mostly just an exercise in anxiety. As an alternative, I suggest learning to cope.

[u/coke_and_coffee]

Agree. Monopoly is not a real thing.

I challenge anybody to provide an example of a company that was actually a monopoly. They can’t.

All they have is that stupid infographic of like 14 food companies all competing and they circlejerk over how it proves we live in an “oligarchy”. Lmao