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Small business is always at a disadvantage against a bigger business.
Even with 'small business' definition -- there are small businesses that have more financial backing than some of their competitors and able to capitalize on that and eventually know out their competition. That's kind of how a free market works isn't it?
Or is a free market where all the parameters have to be equal for everyone? Really?>
As far as Adam Smith is concerned, businesses would produced based off of demand for a profit, and if the product was liked by consumers, they would buy, the company would grow, and the individual would become richer.
What happens in practice is all big businesses look to manipulate the markets, form demand where there is none, and control the access to the market.
Amazon does all three. For one, they gained on investments while they were losing money, and the plan was to gain market control to such a point that they could kick competition out. That is not what Smith imagined.
For me that is conclusive that the goals of a free market can never be reached, but some disagree (obviously).
amazon and wal mart are not anything alike. wal mart built a large corporation selling items through one basic store, wal mart. amazon on the other hand allows smaller retailers to reach a large market through their website. if you want a particular book, you dont have to buy from amazon directly, you can also choose to use one of their outside vendors that has what you want. and you can even later on go though the outside vendor from the vendors website, instead of through amazon.
That’s worse.
Controlling the market place and access to consumers already vastly limits competition and creates Amazon as the power center or controller of the economy (or a part of it at least).
And this isn’t a public service, it is predatory in nature. Not only does amazon charge access to this monopolized market, they also view what competitors are selling and then make copies of their best selling products to try and put them out of business.
This is the number one thing Americans should understand if they have any concerns at all about the economy. A true free market does not exist but some countries come closer than others. While the US is considered mostly free by most rankings, it tends to rank in the low top 20 overall and varies by individual rankings. Canada and many Europeon countries rank higher. The government is heavilly involved in market manipulation through various policies and subsidizes many goods and services. Those with enough money to gain access to government are able to influence policy and manipulate the market in their favor, that is antithetical to a free market.
Some regulation is necessary to make a free market work in a way that is beneficial to a country. Anti trust legislation is generally considered beneficial regulation but currently the only metric considered is consumer prices. Amazon can save people money but it's often devastating to anyone who needs to compete and this will end up damaging the economy.
I don't think people understand how powerful these guys are. They(Amazon) are about to own networking and a few other peripherals. They beat IBM, Cisco, and HP swiftly.
Let's recall they also own whole foods and shoes and whatever else.
But our government is to dumb and weak to address basic services let alone the new Rockefeller. We will soon be in full scale revolution in America but it's not Amazons fault. It's the horrible government and the people who run that government who are to blame and who should be held to account. I've got a feeling it's going to be ugly when it comes.
We're not in a "Free Market". We are in a highly regulated, and manipulated market.
Thats right, America is not home of the free nor brave. Those are lies at the point. We are home to the few and the elite, with all else on their own to try their best to avoid being gunned down in the streets.
That will one day be reversed, and while I don't wish this, history has shown the state that America is in never lasts for long and wont end peacefully. There's a reason all these rich folks are building bunkers. They think it's the end of civilization but it's really just the end of an off the rails, wacko country called America that used to be very decent.
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