Monopolies form BECAUSE of government protections and market interference. When markets are working, monopolies don’t form. This merger should go through.
Sorry Spam, but that's old-school thinking. I'm actually a strong supporter of free-markets in most contexts, but there are areas in which that clearly doesn't work. Look at something like facebook, for example. There's simply no way for a competitor to sweep in, do a better job, and start taking away market share. The network effects are too big to overcome, and every time someone else has posed a threat fb "merged" (bought them) and consolidated that power even further. The result is a concentration of power that is literally affecting the freedoms that our forefathers fought so hard to build, maintain, and in theory promise in perpetuity.
With telcos and ISPs, there are different problems. If not for regulation, prices would be based on the ability to recover costs and generate profits, right? That means that for the past 20 years people living in smaller towns would have paid substantially more than larger cities, and people living rural probably wouldn't have had any service at all, or the price would be so outrageous as to essentially be out of reach. I suppose it's possible to make a case that if people make a decision to live outside the city that they don't deserve to have internet access, or they need to pay $10,000 in setup fees, but I'm not quite on board with that. It's not perfect as it is, but at least it's semi-palatable.
As for this merger, I think I'd only be okay with it if Sprint were indeed going to fold without it. That may end up being the story they present in order to make it fly.
Monopolies form BECAUSE of government protections and market interference. When markets are working, monopolies don’t form. This merger should go through.
That isn’t true at all. The steel and railroad barons created monopolies, trucking transport lines did too, etc... Greedy people will form monopolies when they’re able to. Claiming regulation is the root of all evil is quite silly.
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