That first sentence is a not a throw-away. I hope local, independent bookstores can continue to exist. And also that brick and mortar book stores continue to exist. But it's not like Amazon is illegally colluding to keep them down. independent bookstores just arent a very profitable businesses.
Because it's a business providing a consumer good - not a public institution.
> Having local independent bookstores enhances the quality of living for an entire community
How do they do that? They don't help me because they don't carry books I'm interested in at prices I'm willing to pay. It's serving so few people in the community it can't pay for rent.
Public access to books is subsidized already through libraries.
Which is to say that the marketplace as a whole exists for the benefit of the public. The entire point of regulation is to remediate issues that competition alone fails to address.
We don’t need to prop up an inferior (worse selection, higher price) book industry.
> Which is to say that the marketplace as a whole exists for the benefit of the public.
That’s a more generous characterization than I would use. Once again, if I’m forced to use worse goods at higher prices thats not a benefit to me.
> if I’m forced to use worse goods at higher prices thats not a benefit to me.
Not all benefits are first order effects. Presumably you appreciate your local environment not being full of heavy metals despite the fact that remediating toxic waste increases production costs.
I agree with that. And there are certainly negative second order effects of Amazon.
> Presumably you appreciate your local environment not being full of heavy metals
I’m just not agreeing that big business = evil and environment destroying and local business = good and sustainable
I’ve had good and bad experiences with both and have no evidence that local business is immune from bad incentives.
This isn’t “smaller towns beating big corporations with the local government”. It’s “business owners in a small town stop competition using local government lobbying”.
In both cases you'll be able to find people who complain bitterly about the status quo. The fairness of the local politics will vary but at the end of the day if the majority of the population were truly unhappy with the situation presumably the officials would be voted out.
And I can still get those experiences when I go to a towns that have a unique book store.
I don’t why this was such a key institution that needs to be subsidized. We may have fond memories. If you’re just generally lamenting that good times have changed - I’m with you. But we can’t just mandate that the world stops changing.
The main streets that people like have coffee shops, boutiques, specialists, restaurants, etc.
Its a business. How could you expect it to exist without being profitable?
Maybe they could transition to charities.
Furthermore, I'm NOT evaluating them only on money terms. I was very clear that they provide value and I want them to continue to exist.
I don't disagree that bookstores are probably not that profitable, but I do think that Amazon is taking all the oxygen out of the room and not necessarily by being better, but have having a dragon hoard of cash that probably wasn't generated by selling books.