|
|
Posted by 48PW on Monday, November 03, 2008 at 13:21:09 :
In Reply to: Re: I miss the "old" ebay posted by D Sherman on Monday, November 03, 2008 at 12:28:31 :
Okay, you're a communist. No, not really.
The examples that you cited are of extremely successful businesses whose business practices you may not agree with, but they are not monopolies or even near-monopolies.
You don't have to use E-Bay, you can use any of a dozen other online auctions. The volume they deal with is of course only a tiny fraction of what E-Bay's is and it's likely that you will receive a good deal less for your item because they haven't invested the money in developing their presence as E-Bay has done.
Altenatively, you don't have to use Microsoft at all. You can use a whole suite of products that Google has made available that are browser based. In fact just a couple of days ago Microsoft, realizing that they will have significant competition from web-based applications made the announcement that they would be making browser based versions of their Office products available.
You could of course buy Apple products or any of the myriad versions of Unix/Linux.
The only true monopolies that exist within the U.S. is the government itself and public utilities the you have no choice but to purchase their product or to go cold or thirsty.
Follow Ups: