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Re:Tim Bray told a union meeting Amazon should be broken up by JoeAltmaier on Friday June 12, 2020 @11:25AM (#23500172)
Nonsense. That's the 'great man' theory. Its clear from history that when the time has come, the business appears. There were many online retail operations when Bezos came on the scene. If Amazon hadn't happened, then another company would have.

Heck, Amazon isn't even Amazon any more. Its a two- or three-removed reinvention of what Amazon started out to be.

Re:Tim Bray told a union meeting Amazon should be broken up by logicchains on Friday June 12, 2020 @11:56AM (#23500488)
>If Amazon hadn't happened, then another company would have.

It would have happened later, so everybody's standard of living would have been a little lower. The more you discourage people from starting businesses, the fewer people try to start businesses, so successful new business are created more slowly, and the economy grows slower. It's also more likely the company will appear first in another country more friendly to business, and then the original country will lose out on the revenue, jobs and soft power it might have gained from that country operating there.

Re:Tim Bray told a union meeting Amazon should be broken up by JoeAltmaier on Friday June 12, 2020 @12:14PM (#23500672)
Depends on how much you respect what Amazon does. Perhaps we'd all be better off.