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Originally Posted by stonetools
They do raise that as an argument, and its plausible-monopolies do raise prices (MS Office could be a lot cheaper ). However, the price argument is not their Sunday punch.
Their real argument is that the book industry will become poorer and less productive. B&M stores will more rapidly go out of business, meaning that discovery options for authors will decline . Publishers will be subject to be squeezed by a monopsonistic retailer (Amazon) and and will therefore lack the resources to finance major nonfiction projects like Robert Caro's multi-volume biography of LBJ and to bet on ground breaking new authors .
They also argue that the remedy provided will be an administrative nightmare . They make quite a few arguments, some better than others.
If your focus is purely on prices short term, then those arguments will be unconvincing.
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Speculation, and it doesn't matter. None of this is justification for price-fixing - it's anti-competitive and anti-free-markets.
If Amazon becomes a monopoly by abusing said power, they can be busted up by the feds.
You could have claimed the same thing about Apple + iTunes years ago, yet there's several places (like Amazon) selling music successfully.
The way to fix a wrong (or in this case, prevent a wrong) is not another wrong.