Time to Break Up?

'Trustbusting' has existed for over a century. It started when monopolies and trusts like Standard Oil and all of those steel baron businesses. Carnegie, JP Morgan - you know what I'm talking about. The biggest problem that could tip the balance in free- market capitalism would be businesses becoming too powerful. We are seeing that with this whole net neutrality debate, that some companies have become extremely powerful. Basically, it's either AT&T or Comcast, which sucks because this duopoly forces out other businesses. The rates will keep on rising because people will always want to watch t.v. Customer service is terrible because either way, you still have to watch t.v. Google dominates search engines as well as other services. Facebook, well, not yet. Amazon... don't even get me started. 

This big debate that's coming up is whether or not to break up these businesses. As professor Scott Galloway from NYU Stern says, we need to essentially break up the "Big Four" - Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. We really don't want something like the LEGO Movie where Lord Business's company controls everything. Obviously these businesses have a right to operate and to make profit. Heck, that's what capitalism allows for. There's a reason why these businesses have been so successful. Also, these businesses have brought remarkable change for the world. Apple started the smartphone trend (sorry Blackberry...) but now it's getting quite ridiculous with these prices. The next alternative is Samsung but those phones are now also considered 'premium'.

Some say that these will go away soon, but that's hard to tell. Facebook might, but the other three... probably not. Apple will look into new technology. Google will power the internet. Amazon will continue selling. I mean only 11 of the Dow 100 from a century ago are still alive. The sad truth is that the boom-and-bust cycle is only growing faster.

So should we break them or not? And how?

In the end, we probably will have to do something. Samsung in Korea hasn't turned out too well.We can break these businesses down by investing more of our budget into tracking these businesses or do something so that no one person becomes too powerful. Perhaps businesses will be forced to make contributions or maybe limit their growth? Nah. That's going to make us seem Communist or something.We definitely need to make them comply to stricter regulations, and also, the government on behalf of smaller businesses could sue them for inappropriate action. What's the point of having businesses compete with each other if it's not possible?

New businesses are growing at a slower rate than 40 years ago, and these powerful companies have all these expensive lawyers to help them out, all of these patents, and expansive infrastructure.

Sherman's Antitrust Act may finally see it's use in the 21st century soon.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-apple-google-and-facebook-will-all-go-away-within-50-years-says-author-2017-10-17

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/opinion/is-big-tech-too-powerful-ask-google.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-20/should-america-s-tech-giants-be-broken-up

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/02/16/lynn.amazon.power/index.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-apple-facebook-google-should-be-broken-up-scott-galloway-2017-11