Hacker News Reader

Comment by smallmancontrov | Hacker News Reader

Did you see how much flak Lina Khan got for pushing in that direction?

This issue was on the ballot and will be again.

As I said, in my opinion, of course, one regulator trying to do solve it could never succeed in the regulation having its intended consequences. As it is, trying to control big tech fails, and tend to leat to those that try being replaced from their positions, being them elected officials or not.

There is a legal, political, informational and economic system in place guaranteeing that those who have real power (big tech, finance, military-industrial compelx, etc) can not have that power challenged through the regular means that, formally, do exist to keep them in check. They are able to circumvent and rewrite rules, to manipulate public discourse and elections through lobbying, traditional media and the algorithm.

This system could only be broken through a very radical change akin to a revolution, I think.

You ignore our history of doing this very thing. There was a time when the Robber Barons held US politics in an iron grip, funding the politics, the media, steering the discourse. We defeated them before and we can do it again.

But that's precisely my point: they must be defeated, putting in a new status quo that is a radical rupture with how things are right now. Antitrust laws, forcing monopolies to break themselves into smaller companies, the big labor movements and their conquests, and the New Deal were radical changes!

Lina Khan had great ideas but ultimately her legacy is eliminating low cost airfare

This flak was all over the news at the time, but it never explained to me why a merger would have been better for consumers than a bankruptcy sale. In both cases, the competition goes down and the unprofitable business model gets adjusted until it is profitable. In no case would the assets go to waste, in no case would the effective freebies continue. So what was lost? Can you explain that to me? Or were you mindlessly repeating the flak?

I mean Lina Khan singlehandedly f-ed over consumers by blocking the merger and causing Spirit to collapse. I wouldn't necessarily say tight regulations are good

do you mean "over-fed"?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com