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Re:Break Up Google by sudhirj on Monday June 29, 2020 @03:34AM (#23675350)
The expression ‘break up a company’ carries some moral judgement in it, as if it’s a punishment for doing bad things.

Not sure exactly what it is, but it’s more a societal move that smells a bit of socialism. Google is a capitalist company in a capitalist system, but the breaking up companies / anti trust is a non-capitalist power above it that is willing to sacrifice money to create societal wealth.

Re:Break Up Google by peteretep on Monday June 29, 2020 @03:38AM (#23675367)
Breaking up monopolies gives us more free markets, and is a move towards capitalism, not away from it.
Re:Break Up Google by kevingadd on Monday June 29, 2020 @03:41AM (#23675389)
It's fair to say it's a non-capitalist power, I think. It's the government interfering in the operation of companies instead of allowing it to be entirely controlled by the market players - for good reason, of course.

A capitalist alternative would probably look more like levying fees or capping prices to try and balance the market... which is something that also happens from time to time.

Re:Break Up Google by sudhirj on Monday June 29, 2020 @06:53AM (#23676314)
Even fees and price caps would not be considered capitalist or free-market - they both interfere with the market dynamics. In all cases, we need to interfere with the free market to improve goodness for society as a whole.

But we don't need to attach moral connotations to this – the companies have done nothing illegal, and the executives are doing their jobs. The issue is when technology is applied to natural free markets, a monopoly logically results, which kills the market if left unchecked.