> Big is bad bro
Using "big" as a synonym for "consumers are worse off than alternatives" does not do anyone justice.
> At least she was trying to enforce antitrust for once.
Her prejudice against big tech and pretty much ignoring any other industries is not something to be proud of.
- Three major court wins (Illumina, Tapestry/Capri, Kroger/Albertsons), multiple deals dropped.
-Over $1.5B refunded. Significant settlements (Epic, MoneyGram, Amazon delivery drivers, etc.)
- Junk-fees ban, click-to-cancel rule (You can thank the current administration for walking back on this), non-compete ban.
-Right to repair, data privacy enforcement, health-care pricing interventions ( reduced out-of-pocket costs for inhalers and insulin).
I’m unclear what your first point is saying
FTC under her blocked Kroger/Albertsons, blocked Tapestry/Capri, ended non-competes, enacted click to cancel, made major strides on right to repair, etc. in addition to all the “prejudice against big tech” which are the titans of industry right now…
Big doesn't necessarily mean that consumers will be worse off than small. Just like having a dictator doesn't neccesarily mean that citizens will be worse off then in a democracy. What it does mean in both cases is that if the powerful entity decides to abuse their power for their own gain, it's very difficult (albeit not entirely impossible) to do anything about it. It's therefore better in the long-run to preempt this and bias towards smaller entities that are each less powerful.
Under Khan, the FTC has abandoned the standard of consumer harm, and now just blocks mergers based on vibes. I really liked this article criticizing her approach:
https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/the-ftcs-antitrust-ov...
I stopped reading when they defended Albertsons and Kroger merger. Can anyone defend the consolidation of grocery stores with a straight face? Walmart has obliterated any competition and it has destroyed local food sources everywhere. They can do it at scale that no one can compete with. If the only solution is to further consolidate then we might as well just hand over the government to Walmart.
And yet, groceries have never been cheaper. So the question becomes which do you want: consumer benefits, or your aesthetic preferences regarding how big a company should be?
Groceries have gotten cheaper because the companies selling it pass off their negative externalities to society.
Groceries were cheapest around 2000 and have gotten more expensive since? Particularly 2020 on
Should jobs be a factor as well? I see a lot of job loss in small town Iowa and Nebraska. I don't live there and people there have definitely voted with their wallets.
Food plus quality price index in Japan and France look better to me despite the lack of Walmarts.
And, I read some things about price collusion of the major grocers during the pandemic that makes me concerned.
I will say, thanks for being a human and discussing this as a human. Too many bots on HN lately.
You can analyze it on that basis, but it's a political question. Is the grocery industry a jobs program?
Big tech has been ignored for quite some time compared to other industries.