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>it can be detrimental to consumers, it's not suddenly nefarious when they do it.

That is more of a US than an EU point of view.

US is more "If you're not a monopoly, feel free to fuck the customer"

EU is more "Consumers have rights, quite being a dick".



Except for the last 20 years where we've had basically zero anti-trust enforcement. Lina Kahn biden's FTC chair is actually taking a crack at it again and has filed several major anti-trust suits against several big tech companies this month.


I'm not familiar with EU law but as a US consumer, I don't think that's fair. They're far from perfect but they try. We have entire agencies that exist to protect consumers in specific areas. The SEC being a famous one. Their entire mission is to protect investors from getting scammed. That's why congress created and funds the SEC. That's why those thousands of people go to work every day. To protect us from getting scammed. Awesome. I'm thankful for it.

The context here is one particular type of fucking over the customer. The ways in which monopolies can abuse their power. Within that one specific type, what you said is probably accurate.


The SEC protects investors, not end customers/users. It's different. The EU has a bunch of consumer rights that apply to everyday people regardless of wealth.

The US has very little of that, aside from the occasional recall. Instead, we have a predatory legal system that thrives on lawsuits instead of regulations.


Yes I forgot, you can't make analogies or even provide examples on the interest, because no two things are ever exactly alike. My apologies.

My point stands, however.


It's not really an analogy though. The US is really behind in consumer rights compared to the EU.

The SEC's existence doesn't change that. It's like saying we have a EPA and a ATF. But those aren't consumer protection agencies either.


So apologizing wasn't enough. What would you like for me to show my genuine remorse for providing an example you don't approve of?


So either you're being sarcastic about "genuine" and your entire post here is just to be obnoxious...

Or you're the worst apologizer in the world, jesus christ, go read a tutorial or something.

And no your point doesn't stand. The defensiveness about it being exactly alike would matter if it was an analogy, but you did not make an analogy. Non-analogies do have to match, and that is not an unreasonable standard.


I shouldn't need to apologize for making an example.

How about you quit being such a pedant. An example is not supposed to be exactly the same in every way. It doesn't even need to be mostly the same. It can be only kinda sorta maybe related and that's ok. It's just an example.

Somehow analogies an examples came to mean perfect clones. That's not what they are.


> I shouldn't need to apologize for making an example.

You don't need to apologize, but a fake apology serves no purpose except to annoy people.

A fake apology that claims "genuine remorse" is extra annoying.

> How about you quit being such a pedant. An example is not supposed to be exactly the same in every way. It doesn't even need to be mostly the same. It can be only kinda sorta maybe related and that's ok. It's just an example.

Examples do need to be the same. That's the point of examples, they show what something is.

You can have "an example of something related", but that's not evidence of whatever it's related to. It's ancillary information.

This isn't pedantry, this is how you explain things and argue points. I can't fix an incorrect example by steelmanning your argument, the way I could ignore an actual issue of pedantry.

On the other side, an analogy doesn't have to be related at all, but it takes significantly more to set up. A connects to B the same way that X connects to Y. It looks very different from an example.


I don't think this is a worthwhile discussion to continue. Good day/evening to you.


Indeed, the GP's description of the situation is backwards. In the US, harming consumers is the surest way to lose an antitrust case. In the EU, they use regulatory powers to protect competitors, even when it harms consumers.


Google's customer service is famously awful.


Only if you don't pay for it. if you pay for it, its average to normal.

(I pay for 1 and I get what I pay for. People respond when I ask for help)


I'd gladly pay ~$100 or so not to be treated like a criminal by Google Ads support, but when I'm already (or was) paying ~$2000/month I'd expect someone to at least hear me out when I suggest their algo might be fucked up. Alas, they won't let me pay for support in the first place.




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