Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The point of anti-trust isn’t to punish individuals but to remedy harm to the consumer. Who cares if people involved with google make more money.

Honestly, a broken up Google is worth more than a unified one. Cynically this may be a ploy just to unleash the value that google has pent up.



"Who cares if people involved with google make more money"

They might not engage in as much harmful behavior if they actually wound up losing money by it rather than making money, and if it cost them time in jail.

"The point of anti-trust isn’t to punish individuals but to remedy harm to the consumer."

Which is evidence that the current antitrust laws are too lax.

Also, I'm not sure how harm to the consumers is supposed to be remedied if the consumers will ultimately be the ones paying the fees that these companies are charged for breaking the law.


The goal is that the benefits will make up for whatever fees get passed on.

If google has to stop colluding to increase ad prices that’s a structural change that will change their profit margin, there’s no way to pass that cost on the consumer.

Anti trust is one of the few places where that cost doesn’t get passed on to consumers since the whole point is to make it so they can no longer just raise prices.

If you want to see how this worked look at the breakup of Standard Oil or Ma Bell, those both had massive benefits for consumers and consumers ultimately saved tons of money.


> Who cares if people involved with google make more money.

Anyone who cares about moral hazard?




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: