If you could shut down one business...

[mgk920]

Walmart used to pride itself in carrying American-made products. That's why I purchased a TV there around 1997. It was American-made.

But no more. Try finding American-made electronics there now.

Does anyone even make electronics in the US?

Americans still buy electronics, so someone ought to.

They're about to start making cell phone touch screens in a huge new plant that is currently under construction along I-41/94 in southeastern Wisconsin.

Mike

[Mark68]

Stretching the word 'business' a bit further, I'm going to go with journalism as a whole...newspapers, magazines, cable/network news. They're in business for one reason and one reason only: to stay in business; therefore, everything is geared to sinking to the lowest common denominator to sell the most of their product. IMO, 'investigative reporting' and reporting the 'truth' died a long time ago. Everything is skewed to bring in the most buyers. TV and print is just visual clickbait nowadays.

Runner-up is Twitter, for helping ruin attention spans. No one reads beyond the headline anymore (as shown by most any comment section of a news story).

Isn't any business/industry in business for one reason and one reason only? I mean, show me a business whose business model is the end of their business and I'll show you a business doomed to fail (which, for many, isn't necessarily a bad thing).

[bandit957]

One thing is for certain: They need to start enforcing the AT&T breakup again. At this point, it's as if the breakup never even happened.

If the federal government won't do it, the states must.

[PHLBOS]

One thing is for certain: They need to start enforcing the AT&T breakup again. At this point, it's as if the breakup never even happened.

How does one enforce a breakup/divestiture that happened some 35 years ago?  Last time I checked, consumers still have a choice for telephone companies.  No way is it like the days of the old AT&T (aka MA-Bell) of the 1970s.

If the federal government won't do it, the states must.

How about consumers vote with their wallets and choose other providers (example: Verizon)?

[bandit957]

One thing is for certain: They need to start enforcing the AT&T breakup again. At this point, it's as if the breakup never even happened.

How does one enforce a breakup/divestiture that happened some 35 years ago?  Last time I checked, consumers still have a choice for telephone companies.  No way is it like the days of the old AT&T (aka MA-Bell) of the 1970s.

If the federal government won't do it, the states must.

How about consumers vote with their wallets and choose other providers (example: Verizon)?

Around here, we have something like 2 cellphone companies. And if you still want landline, there's one company, and that's it.

[hbelkins]

One thing is for certain: They need to start enforcing the AT&T breakup again. At this point, it's as if the breakup never even happened.

How does one enforce a breakup/divestiture that happened some 35 years ago?  Last time I checked, consumers still have a choice for telephone companies.  No way is it like the days of the old AT&T (aka MA-Bell) of the 1970s.

If the federal government won't do it, the states must.

How about consumers vote with their wallets and choose other providers (example: Verizon)?

Around here, we have something like 2 cellphone companies. And if you still want landline, there's one company, and that's it.

I'm out in the sticks, and we have all sorts of cell providers to choose from. AT&T and Appalachian Wireless are the big ones, but there's Straight Talk, TracFone, and a bunch of others I can't think of off the top of my head.

[SectorZ]

VW/Audi.

They should have gotten the death penalty for the emissions scandal. Their former CEO is under active indictment in this country and the Germans won't extradite him. When they do, they get their right to participate in the US economy back.

[DaBigE]

VW/Audi.

They should have gotten the death penalty for the emissions scandal.

For emissions? By that threshold, I don't think we'd have any automakers left. GM: ignition system; Ford: Pinto, powershift transmission; Toyota: continuing to use Takata airbags in new cars well after the recall started...

[SectorZ]

VW/Audi.

They should have gotten the death penalty for the emissions scandal.

For emissions? By that threshold, I don't think we'd have any automakers left. GM: ignition system; Ford: Pinto, powershift transmission; Toyota: continuing to use Takata airbags in new cars well after the recall started...

Those companies were due to incompetence, this was a willful act. That's the difference.

[formulanone]

The Tobacco industry

Yes.

There's so many other tastier ways to pollute oneself.

[Beltway]

VW/Audi.
They should have gotten the death penalty for the emissions scandal.

For emissions? By that threshold, I don't think we'd have any automakers left. GM: ignition system; Ford: Pinto, powershift transmission; Toyota: continuing to use Takata airbags in new cars well after the recall started...

VW/Audi was a hit job by the U.S. federal government.

[RobbieL2415]

One thing is for certain: They need to start enforcing the AT&T breakup again. At this point, it's as if the breakup never even happened.

If the federal government won't do it, the states must.

The way I see it, the breakup occured because there wasn't actually any direct competition, local and long-distance.  The old ATT was vertically integrated and operated nationwide except for two markets.  SNET operated exclusively in CT, and Cincinatti Bell operated in OH. ATT had only minority stakes in those companies so they weren't affected by the breakup.  In 2019, the telcos that operate in the US exist because of the breakup.  Verizon was borne out of Bell Atlantic. CenturyLink and Qwest were allowed to merge because they were independent.

[Verlanka]

I would shut down that lemonade stand a couple of blocks down the street from me.  Damn brat's annoying and the lemonade is Country Time.

One thing is for certain: They need to start enforcing the AT&T breakup again. At this point, it's as if the breakup never even happened.

At least they have real competition though (Comcast, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.).

[SP Cook]

The AT&T break up was, of course, idiotic.  The whole thing has been rendered moot by cell phones and other technology, but Bell was a wonderful company (and the most broadly owned stock of all).  The situation was really simple.    The only kind of phone was a landline, now called "POTS" for plain old telephone service.  Every place had one and only one telephone company that installed telephones.  In about 80% of the country, this was a Bell, many rural areas, and some places not so rural (Las Vegas, Lexington, Tampa, Raleigh-Durham, many others, plus the odd situations in Conn. and Cincinnati), where there were many other companies including Contel, Centel, GTE, United, and many others. 

You could (and yes there are kids today who do not know this) only call locally, generally your county, for "free" and everything else was long distance.  AT&T handled long distance, both for itself and for the 20% of the country otherwise served.  And, and this is the important part, it vastly overcharged for long distance.  So it could vastly undercharge for local service.  Since the major users of long distance was government, business, and the wealthy, this meant that the rich and big business SUBSIDIZED the poor, insuring virtually universal service.  Only the very poorest (who needed to be looking for work, not be on the phone) could not afford phone service.  A wonderful system.

The AT&T breakup "accomplished" two things. 

First was the break up of AT&T into 8 parts.  AT&T which made phones and handled long distance.  The phone making division, Western Electric, and GTE's companion Automatic Electric, which did the same for the 20%, quickly went out of business, destroying good union jobs and replacing study equipment with Chinese crap.  The long distance division was then forced to compete with other companies, such as Sprint and MCI.  Thus the cost of local service went way up, and the cost of long distance went way down.  In other words, the poor and middle class got screwed, and the wealthy and big business saved. 

Second, the seven other companies were the "baby Bells" regional companies that owned the local phone company in different places.  And?  The fact that my phone company was "Bell Atlantic" and somebody else's phone company was "Bell South" and somebody else's was "NYNEX" was TOTALLY IRRELEVANT.  I had ONE AND ONLY ONE local phone company.  Who cares if it was a part of a huge company that also owned the ONE AND ONLY local phone company in Oregon, or just a really big company that "only" owned the local phone company in Pennsylvania, and some other really big company owned the phone company in Oregon?  Irrelevant.  I had the same choice.  None. 

So, the cost of local phone service skyrocketed.  We were a few years from the end of universal service.  Cell phones and VOIP saved us from that fate, but in an alternate universe  without those inventions, today, nobody who was not at least solidly middle class, if not upper middle class, could afford a phone in their home.

[bandit957]

The cost of local phone service skyrocketed because of deregulation of big corporations.

If it's impractical for phone and other utilities to be anything other than a monopoly, then they should be publicly owned - not owned by big corporations.

Also, I remember when Cincinnati Bell wanted to charge a fee for people using modems. All due to greed.

[SP Cook]

Except, of course, local phone companies are totally regulated by state Public Service Commissions, Railroad Commissions, Public Utilities Commissions in every jurisdiction.

[bandit957]

Except, of course, local phone companies are totally regulated by state Public Service Commissions, Railroad Commissions, Public Utilities Commissions in every jurisdiction.

Cincinnati Bell does pretty much whatever it wants.

[bandit957]

Also, why do monopolies advertise?

I remember Cincinnati Bell running huge newspaper ads actually bragging that it was increasing its rates. As with the electric utilities, every rate increase was rubber-stamped by regulators.

[Rothman]

Maybe the breaking up of Bell was bad because telecommunications should be treated as a public good rather than private.  Bell should have been nationalized!

[Max Rockatansky]

Speaking of phones I wouldn't mind the trade off of having no cellular industry or even one that didn't really develop beyond what it was in the 1990s.  Sure being able to have a computer like device is nice and all but the aspect of being "constantly reachable"  is aggravating.  At some point around circa 2009 my own career went from "leave a voice mail if I'm not home and handle your own to emergency"  to being "always on call"  somehow.  I do miss the times where if you weren't at home you simply weren't reachable, made for a much more quiet and private way of life. 

[bandit957]

Speaking of phones I wouldn't mind the trade off of having no cellular industry or even one that didn't really develop beyond what it was in the 1990s.  Sure being able to have a computer like device is nice and all but the aspect of being "constantly reachable"  is aggravating.  At some point around circa 2009 my own career went from "leave a voice mail if I'm not home and handle your own to emergency"  to being "always on call"  somehow.  I do miss the times where if you weren't at home you simply weren't reachable, made for a much more quiet and private way of life.

The world is too complicated to do without smartphones now. If something important happens, news needs to travel fast.

What's surprising is that we have such advanced technology but our economic system is stuck in feudalist times.

[Max Rockatansky]

Speaking of phones I wouldn't mind the trade off of having no cellular industry or even one that didn't really develop beyond what it was in the 1990s.  Sure being able to have a computer like device is nice and all but the aspect of being "constantly reachable"  is aggravating.  At some point around circa 2009 my own career went from "leave a voice mail if I'm not home and handle your own to emergency"  to being "always on call"  somehow.  I do miss the times where if you weren't at home you simply weren't reachable, made for a much more quiet and private way of life.

The world is too complicated to do without smartphones now. If something important happens, news needs to travel fast.

What's surprising is that we have such advanced technology but our economic system is stuck in feudalist times.

I'd argue that the world is way too complicated because of the perpetuation of cellular and social media technology, especially when it comes to emergency management (which is what I do).   It used to be that a more singular message got out that was streamlined, now you have a disorganization of information coming from everywhere in almost every form of media/communication.  I'd argue that it lead to things like all the problems in Florida that have been associated with all the unnecessary preparation for Hurricane Dorian.  The more voices out there isn't exactly a good thing in that sphere.  Worse yet, people have become way too reliant on things like cell phones and things like GPS technology to pull them out of a fire in an emergency even those they might fail.  We used (meaning what I do) used to teach people what to do, how to rely on themselves during an emergency and what message to listen to.  Now that's essentially gone out the window and people think not being able find a key or someone being late qualifies as "an emergency ."

You could go even further into the social implications of cellular and mass media technology leading to an increase in terrorism and active shooter incidents.  People prone to that kind often copy what they see put in front of them in popular media and there likely is causality with some of the trends in violent crime.  So in that sense cellular and communications technology is largely the driver for the complicated world today. 

[SP Cook]

As with the electric utilities, every rate increase was rubber-stamped by regulators.

Sooooooooo, the government is corrupt and cannot be trusted to do its job.  But should own the phone system.

Cannot argue with illogic like that.

[bandit957]

Sooooooooo, the government is corrupt and cannot be trusted to do its job.

As if big corporations do so great themselves.

[GaryV]

Bell should have been nationalized!

So which bastion of efficiency would you choose to run it?  The military, the IRS, TSA, ...