Quote:
Originally Posted by Rizla
Is a cartel better than a monopoly?
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Monopoly isn't a bad board game but I haven't played Cartel.
The big five currently have a cartel on small monopolies (via the life plus 70 copyright) so it's actually the worst of both. If Amazon actually gets a monopsony it's not good either but they're unlikely to one day raise prices of all best sellers by 50%. If they piss off a customer that spends a few hundred bucks a year on books they could lose that same customer that probably spends a couple thousand a year on other products. They will squeeze their suppliers though so authors should be wary.
Either way they're all bad for a healthy industry but I believe the free market will eventually straighten it out. The problem is that the market correction will be more painful the longer they try to fight it. Unfortunately the people that won't get hurt by it are the ones that caused it. They'll be long gone with golden parachutes.