Hmm, I don't like where this is going

"El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!" (lightningzone) 04/24/2020 at 14:54 • Filed to: None

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We need Teddy!

For Sweden > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 04/24/2020 at 14:59

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Tired: break up the oil m onopoly

Wired: nationalize the oil m onopoly and use the profits to fund proletarian revolution

RallyWrench > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 04/24/2020 at 15:07

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They may as well merge the rest and rename it Big Oil, make it official. 

WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > For Sweden 04/24/2020 at 15:12

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Gizmodo: All cars will be electric by 2025!!

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI 04/24/2020 at 15:15

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Coast to Coast Self-Drive in 2017!!!

facw > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 04/24/2020 at 15:20

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If you think that’s bad, take a gander at what happened to the Bell Telephone/AT&T

(N ote that that graphic is examining a T-Mobile/AT&T merger, which didn’t happen, instead T-Mobile took over Sprint).

Of course breaking up a monopoly to create regional monopolies seems pretty pointless, you need to ensure they compete directly, which is really dependent on the type of market, and the barriers to entry.

Under_Score > For Sweden 04/24/2020 at 15:22

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Petroletarian Revolution

Ash78, voting early and often > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 04/24/2020 at 15:29

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Nothin’ we can’t handle, break it up and dismantle
Light it up, like a candle, just ‘cause I can’t stand you
Put my shit on tapes like you bustin’ grapes
Think you holdin’ weight, then you haven’t met the apes.

—T. Roosevelt, from The Rough Riders Anthem , circa 1899

gin-san - shitpost specialist > For Sweden 04/24/2020 at 15:32

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ClassicDatsunDebate > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 04/24/2020 at 15:36

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Reminds me....

ClassicDatsunDebate > Ash78, voting early and often 04/24/2020 at 15:39

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They just don’t write ‘em like that anymore

shop-teacher > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 04/24/2020 at 15:40

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This was a very sore subject for my grandfather.  He spent 70 years in the oil and gas industry, from 1927-1997 (with a break for WWII in there of course).  The Exxon-Mobil merger genuinely pissed him off, as did BP’s purchase of Amoco.

Ash78, voting early and often > ClassicDatsunDebate 04/24/2020 at 15:41

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I was actually a little off. Turns out it was 100 years later by some fellow named DMX.

not for canada - australian in disguise > For Sweden 04/24/2020 at 16:10

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based and redpilled

trudeau sr did nothing wrong except being bald

For Sweden > not for canada - australian in disguise 04/24/2020 at 16:13

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Are you suggesting Lenin’s hairstyle was bad?

ranwhenparked > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 04/24/2020 at 16:34

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The same thing happened with AT&T, most of it remerged back into, well, AT&T.

In both cases, the factors that caused the antitrust situation changed. The move to wireless communication and rise of cable services reduced barriers to entry into the telecommunications market, making it more difficult for one company to totally dominate the industry through controlling the installed landline infrastructure.

While, with Standard Oil, the rise of oil industries in other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, to equal or eclipse the US in output, means that one or a few large US-based companies are no longer able to have the same level of dominance on the global industry. Even the giant ExxonMobil is actually not so big when compared to some of the state-owned monopolies like Saudi Aramco and CNPC ; and the OPEC cartel has mostly eliminated the ability of one company to single handedly influence the oil market one way or the other.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 04/24/2020 at 16:44

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https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32159871/tesla-robo-taxis-still-coming-2020/

Totally happening. /s

ranwhenparked > facw 04/24/2020 at 16:45

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I think the idea was that the regional Baby Bells would be too small and too fragmented to offer much opposition to new market entrants.

ranwhenparked > ClassicDatsunDebate 04/24/2020 at 16:53

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I’ve heard that sentiment before, but mostly from bitter, old retired AT&T lifers who were really loyal to the company (quite a few of them in NJ/Eastern PA). The notion that we had the most reliable and most efficient phone system in the world, accessed through heavy, overbuilt telephones designed to last decades in service, and then dismantled it and outsourced all equipment manufacturing to lowest cost bidders in China.

Of course, that sets aside the fact that phones did used to be pretty expensive. It was rare for even a middle class household to have more than one line, and the phones themselves were often leased through a charge on the monthly phone bill, rather than purchased outright. The quality might have been there, but that was because you paid for it.

Today, everyone in the family has their own cell phone, with their own dedicated number, and a good number of homes still have a vestigial landline going to them as well, for like 5-6 lines per home, and people buy a new phone every year or every other year or so.

Still, it was kind of nice when they used to send out professional phone consultants when you were building a new house or office or remodeling, to advise you on the ergonomically best locations and mountings for phones and suggest the models that would work best for each application. You can afford to pay people to do extraneous stuff like that when you’re a giant monopoly, to say nothing about the massive amounts of cash Bell Labs used to dump into purely speculative research, whether they had a plan for commercialization, or not.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 04/24/2020 at 16:57

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One of the sad parts of this saga is that there ARE people, who had no business buying a $60k car, who BORROWED MONEY to buy this vehicle... under Elon’s assurance that the car would be paying for itself by now giving “rides for hire in The Tesla Network”. “It’s an appreciating asset!”

By now, and clearly I’m a cynic, I’m putting Elon’s BS here in the same round file with the people mixing up “Lysol Smoothies” this afternoon. Sometimes random Twitter spews DO harm people.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > For Sweden 04/24/2020 at 16:58

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Marx’s haircut was worse...

Textured Soy Protein > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 04/24/2020 at 18:21

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Sunoco is here to save us!

Oh wait nevermind they’re owned by Energy Transfer Partners, a.k.a. the Dakota Access Pipeline people. 

ClassicDatsunDebate > ranwhenparked 04/24/2020 at 18:24

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My parents had an old bake lite phone from the 40's. The handset was like 2lbs.

Your post reminds me of the old Brady Bunch where Mike installs a payphone.

ranwhenparked > ClassicDatsunDebate 04/24/2020 at 19:09

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They were built like industrial equipment. When one broke, AT&T Western Electric either fixed it in your house , or replaced it and sent the old one  back to the factory for refurbishment to eventually go to someone else. 

ClassicDatsunDebate > ranwhenparked 04/24/2020 at 19:14

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mind you it was $4 a month in 1980  dollars for the rental

ranwhenparked > ClassicDatsunDebate 04/24/2020 at 19:23

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Yep, $150 a year in today’s money. You paid for the phone may times over. We discovered my grandmother was somehow still renting the one in her kitchen  at the time we moved her into a nursing home in 2007. AT&T sold off their leases to some third party finance company years ago, and I would guess there’s still a handful of people renting to this day. 

ClassicDatsunDebate > ranwhenparked 04/24/2020 at 20:05

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Yeah didn’t you post about it?  I heard the story about an elderly person still paying the phone rental years later.

ranwhenparked > ClassicDatsunDebate 04/24/2020 at 20:24

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Maybe, I don’t really  remember. She can’t have been the only one though

coqui70 > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 04/25/2020 at 00:33

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