Should we break up monopolies (more than 50% the market), including more than one corporation that acts as a monopoly?

[KelleyNice]

Mainstream media may be half dozen corporations and although they may bicker about minor things that get the public hot and bothered, when it comes to supporting the federal government, they speak as one voice. To truly have a free press, should they be broken up into a thousand pieces?

If Google has over 50% of the search engine market, they are a monopoly.

If Microsoft has over 50% of the operating system market in United States, they are a monopoly.

If Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube has over 50% of the market and they all censor the same information, they are a monopoly.

If Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal have over 50% of the market and if they all cancel or refuse merchants accounts from the same individuals or companies, that they disapprove of, even when legal, they are a monopoly.

[abc3643]

No.

One of the greatest creations on Earth was American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) aka "Ma Bell".

40 years ago, AT&T lost a case against long-distance provider MCI and was ordered to be divested, meaning broken-up, and that happened on 01 JAN 1984.

Before that, AT&T was a regulated monopoly and, because of that, many of the 20th century's greatest inventions came from AT&T including fundamental technologies and sciences that had never existed before. Why? Because AT&T didn't have to worry about not having a profit. Since they were effectively guaranteed a profit, they invested enormously in basic research and development ("R&D") at AT&T Bell Labs.

All the electronics technology you use today relies on multiple creations by AT&T Bell Labs.

Some of the things created/discovered by AT&T Bell Labs scientists:

1. The LASER.

2. Information Theory invented by Claude Shannon.

3. Advancements in controls/systems/signals theory such as the Nyquist Sampling Criterion and Nyquist Stability Theorem by Henry Nyquist

4. Radio astronomy and discovery of the 3 deg Kelvin cosmic background radiation that pretty much verifies the occurrence of The Big Bang.

5. The transistor - the basis for all modern electronics was invented 75 years ago by William Shockley.

6. UNIX and the C programming language.

7. The photovoltaic cell, which is the basis for solar power.

8. The charge-coupled device, which is critical for digital imaging.

9. Telstar - the first communications satellite to broadcast TV signals. Telstar 1 was launched 60 years ago this past week.

Lord knows, I probably forget a few more...

But MCI had to butt in and Judge Harold Greene had to break-up AT&T (look up "Breakup of the Bell System"), so the greatest era of inventing and technological revolution came to an abrupt end because, now, all of AT&T's research had to be towards proximate issues for the company's bottom line industry: phones. They got into the PC business because of the break-up, but it was too late for them.

[abc3643]

Another great break-up that perhaps should not have occurred:
Boeing.

Boeing made airplanes - both the airframe and engines - and they had their own airline.
When Boeing was ordered broken-up, Boeing retained the airframe business, but spun-off the engines and controls business at Pratt & Whitney / United Technologies and the airline business as United Airlines.

[abc3643]

https://www.historylink.org/file/5368

[DWornock]

Yes and the mainstream media is the monopoly I would break up.

[peedy]

We don't break up enough of them or they hide who really owns what through dumbie corporations among many lawyers should be broke up they're the one fucking up everything
Did you know that the swap of Washington DC is full of lawyers no wonder why things went up shit creek
And according to the constitution no one of title can serve in government kings, queens, prince, princess, knights, and esquires which is another name for a lawyer

[KelleyNice]

And, that was reinforced by the original 13th Amendment ratified in 1819 and later fraudulently deleted but never repealed.

[TallAnon]

Economy isn't that simple, unfortunately. If a country decides it illegal, that means they could just stop dealing in this country. This could seriously cripple the economy of a country when made into a common practice.
A more realistic way is make a deal with them and tell them they can still deal in your country, as long as they, for example, make their code open-source, deal with patents in certain ways. Essentially allowing other companies to get an advantage.

[exitseven]

Yes, anytime a company gets so big that it has no competition it can only lead to trouble. The big tech companies did not want Trump to get re-elected because he had planned on breaking them up.

[Cubus]

That's what happened with Rockefeller's Standard Oil. They ordered him to break it to smaller companies, because he had a monopoly.

[007kingifrit]

yes, they have too much power and interfere in politics

[Adaeva]

Of course. Monopolies are not good.

[Lliam]

Yes.