Dealing with monopolies

An article was headlined “Google ad costs, not its alleged monopoly, irks businesses.” (Nov. 10) I had to read it to decide if it was the headline writer or the business people who were the most clueless. It ends up being a little of both. Kids, it’s the monopoly position that lets them charge that much and to decide how to order searches. Both are reasons to break up the organization. In the same way, there’s not a single abuse of power that is justification for breaking up Amazon. Those are all symptoms.

What people forget is that it’s not illegal to become a monopoly. What’s illegal is using your monopoly position to protect that position and restrain competition. Those two, and the other billionaire boys club top tech companies, quite clearly seem to violate the law. Mango Mussolini might have used the wrong reasons to start the investigations, but I hope the more legitimate administration to come keeps looking at them.

David Teich

Spokane Valley