The Biden administration is actually doing something about ludicrously expensive concert tickets
The Biden administration is actually doing something about ludicrously expensive concert tickets
The government filed a lawsuit to break up Ticketmaster's parent company.
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I'm always glad to see the government go after a consolidated vertical monopoly like these assholes. It is part of the government's damn job, afterall.
But it kind of feels like it's a play for optics when there are much larger issues.
Its weird how a large group of people such as the federal government can work on more than one thing at a time.
Just because you dont know all the other things happening doesnt mean theyre not.
Ticketmaster is an easy target. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft ,Google should have been cut to pieces years ago, yet here we are.
These companies have more revenue than some countries, this is mental and shouldn't happen.
So yeah, I get the cynicism.
For such an easy target, Ticketmaster has operated with impunity for decades at this point. I agree it probably isn't the most pressing problem right now, but I am glad something is finally being done.
I'm glad they go after them, but I fear that they will use them as a scapegoat and do jackshit to other monopolies
Tbf, there's the other interpretation - go after the easy target first and use the momentum (and possibly legal precedents) from that to go on to progressively larger fish.
I understand this is extremely optimistic but hey, it could happen.
Dear US government, please stop climate change. I don't even go to concerts. I would feel bad about the gas it takes to get there
The current session doesn't even have a good record of doing one thing at once and political capital is not infinite. It's a legitimate concern to think we should be doing more important things.
And it's weird how these things almost always get killed by someone like Joe Manchin or the SCOTUS in spite of all the hard work of those good people. Try to pay more attention to what is actually going on.
I would have been receptive to the "there are larger issues" part but it might help to think of it like:
Instead of just an X-axis with "more/less important," add a Y-axis with "more/less political," a Z-axis with "more/less important to rich people," an A-axis with "simple/complicated" and so on, with a narrow N-dimensional space in which something can happen. All of these values are changing constantly and independently for every issue. We can affect some of these values, but the entire picture is usually out of any one person's control.
At this moment, fixing the concert monopoly is incredibly in the "maybe it can happen" zone. We just have to take it and run with it. Maybe, just maybe, ranked choice voting or taxing rich people or getting universal health care will make it to the "maybe it can happen" zone one day. It's not that, but hey, at least something gets a little better now.
Again, I'm all for it (in spite of what all the zero chill reddit types ITT think). But my guess is, it will die in some Republican appointed court as planned. It's probably performative pandering. I would love to be wrong about this. The administration does seem interested in going after corporations and big pharma. Yet little of substance has been done. Just lots of posturing. I think folks are desperate for any kind of progress, which is understandable.
They are supposed to stop it looooong before it gets to this stage. Have one or more companies formed powerful trusts that give them significant power over a market? Break them apart and bust them open.
Instead, we twiddle our thumbs while bootlicking white knites tell you it’s not a monopoly because there are TWO trusts cornering entire markets.
It’s madness.
you are like those karens at council meetings who complain "why we spend money on this instead of this??" and nothing gets done as result
you sound like reddit. try to lemmy more.
Every broken up company is a victory
At least it can set a precedent