On November 20, 2018, Target reported weaker-than-expected earnings. The stock fell 10.5 percent and the Dow dropped 552 points, closing below where it started the year. "What shoppers don't see when brousing the selections at Amazon," wrote Tracy Frisch in The SUN's November issue, "are the many ways the online store is transforming the economy. Our country is losing . . . businesses. Jobs are becoming increasingly insecure. Inequality is rising." Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO, and also the richest man in the world, "doesn't want Amazon to merely dominate the market," Tracy wrote, "he wants it to become the market." The NYT had published an article just days before entitled, "Is Amazon Bad for America?" in which it argued Amazon had become a monopoly and should be broken up.
Perhaps not broken up. It serves a function, delivering goods to people much more efficiently than if they drove their cars to malls and big box retailers. By having less 'windshield time,' we have more time and more freedom.
A near-monopoly, it ought to be a public utility, its profits going to the people.
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