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Comment by yetanotherasian | Hacker News Reader

It's not astroturf. It's pointing out you've been living with this stuff for years, Amazon isn't new and special. If you want the problem solved then it shouldn't be about Amazon, it should be about entire process.

If Amazon can't sell an "Amazon Brand" that competes with other sellers on it's site, the Trader Joe's should not be able to sell wine that competes with the other branded wine in it's own stores. Nor should Target be able to see it's Good Stuff brand (or whatever it is) that directly competes with other things it stocks.

Similarly, if Amazon is going to be barred from having people pay to be the top of search results than Safeway should be barred from having companies pay to have their items placed on the end shelves.

This shouldn't be about just Amazon.

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There’s no “entire process” you can target. You going to pass a law on how every company can raise prices? Impossible

No, the actual way is to go company by company and dismantle them. And by Starting with the biggest it sends a message to others that perhaps they should change before they too get broken up.

So by killing a few prominent hostages the system ends up changing “on its own.”

> No, the actual way is to go company by company and dismantle them. And by Starting with the biggest it sends a message to others that perhaps they should change before they too get broken up.

You will never finish if you go company by company, there’s just too many. Additionally no company ever stops anything until forced to. Your suggestions will not solve anything.

If they are all so interchangable, then I guess no one should care too much about them being split up either. Just need a high enough frequency of splitting to keep the market sane.

Are you suggesting free markets are a bad thing? If people think it’s bad, they can stop using the company. If you can’t convince everybody that it’s bad and they should stop using the company, then doesn’t this mean your thoughts are not the average?

Basically you just said it's hopeless

So what's the solution?

I reverse this question to you, what is the solution? I have none but asking companies to change will do nothing. Forcing them to change is a dictatorship. So you tell me what the solution is?

1. Set the example by creating or joining organizations that are not based on Capital owning the majority of the organization (cooperatives, non-stock not-for profit etc..)

2. Increase taxes on non-labor capital growth to directly fund full employment programs Eg make "profit" impossible

And i state again, setting an example will do nothing, as it hasn’t.

Banning MBAs will have more of an effect.

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