White House Mulls Antitrust Probe on Tech Giants

[kju1]

Right, but basically you can use that for anything on the internet-that is my point-You don't have "free speach" and if your viewpoints are different-you can't share them.

You cant share them on a left leaning platform. Nothing says there cant be a right leaning one. *shrug*

Is the front page news the right place for all this "right vs left" political banter? Is the kind of article that promotes that kind of discussion here appropriate?

Maybe Kyle and crew are trolling the trolls?

 

[GT98]

You cant share them on a left leaning platform. Nothing says there cant be a right leaning one. *shrug*

But apparently they aren't showing up in a search or being actively removed by larger corporations aka Youtube vs Prager Univerisity.

Its like selling a product-YouTube has the biggest market reach, so of course you want your media there, but only say Vimeo will allow it-even though your not violating a TOS with that media-which is often up to fuzzy interpration.

That is the bigger issue-some viewpoints will get more time because one media platform is bigger then the other and might be actively removing content it doesn't "like". Or its algorithms remove it (unintenionally or not)

There has to be some sort of "leveling of the playing field" that doesn't so favoretism-real or not.

 

[Kinestron]

_______________
[______________]
[___SOAP BOX___]
[______________]


Want a real crazy 'monopoly'? If you've ever looked at your credit report on Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion, or used a credit grading tool like Kredit Karma or myFICO, they will show you your scores, the areas that make up your scores, and what you can do to improve your scores.

Now, you would think that if you have no outstanding debt except, say, a car loan, that you pay your insurance and utilities on time, have a savings account with at least 3 months worth of funds, and you have no negative activity or past due accounts on your credit report, you'd have a good score, right? Wrong. At best, you'll only have a 'Fair' rating. Not Good, and certainly not Excellent. Why? Because you aren't using any credit. Evening owning a house with 10 years of equity will not bring your credit rating up to excellent without some reported 'credit'. And the credit they want to see is .... CREDIT CARDS. They want you to have an amount of available credit on credit cards equal to a certain percentage of your income. And you can't just have the cards, you have to use them. And you can't just use them and pay them off each month - YOU HAVE TO CARRY A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF DEBT ON THEM. This is the way that you move up to an 'excellent' credit rating.

Why is an 'excellent' credit rating important? If you are purchasing a house on a 30-year, $240,000 mortgage, an 'excellent' credit rating will net you, at a minimum, a 4.6% interest rate with a 30-year payout of $443,000. A 'fair' credit rating will probably net you a 5.5% interest rate with a 30-year payout of $490,000, or even worse a 6% interest rate with a 30-year payout of $518,000. The differences are close to a years salary for a middle-income family.

But the kick here is that you CAN'T get an 'excellent' credit rating unless you play their game - you have to accept their credit, and they advertise the credit cards right on your credit report, and they explain what you need to do and how long it will take to improve your credit report. The game is rigged - they control the reports, they determine who gets to have good credit, and they've decided you can't have good credit unless you're using the products of the companies that advertise and sponsor them.

That, my friends, is a wild, wild, crazy piece of madness. It's not a monopoly, but it's something even more insidious.

Thank you. I started looking at our so-called credit system and where is choice in this? It's a system corporations/big banks put in place and you don't have the option of opting out, that is unless you decide to become a monk. Besides being a millionaire where is the competition to this system? We have to use this credit system so our debt is increased. This seems to artificially inflate prices because any 'good' business will increase prices according to what people are willing to pay. If you extend credit then you are able to pay more. Bah, I can't explain it well so yes, there is little incentive to not use credit yet still be a fiscally responsible citizen with a decent sized savings account.

 

[raz-0]

_
CREDIT CARDS. They want you to have an amount of available credit on credit cards equal to a certain percentage of your income. And you can't just have the cards, you have to use them. And you can't just use them and pay them off each month - YOU HAVE TO CARRY A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF DEBT ON THEM. This is the way that you move up to an 'excellent' credit rating.

You are pretty wrong here.

1) you don't have to have credit cards. You HAVE to have open active accounts. Otherwise your credit history is stale and stale get dinked for points.
2) yes, if your open accounts are unsecured credit, you DO have to use them. Otherwise they aren't active.
3) You do NOT have to carry a certain amount of debt on them.

From my experience, when I went to buy my house (first, and currently only), I got my credit reports. They were 76x 79x and 79x when I checked with the three companies. The one with the 76x score also listed my current employer as someone I hadn't worked for for over a decade at that time. Fortunately that company was not one the mortgage company used. On a hard pull, byt the mortgage company, they got back higher actual scores than were being estimated for me by the "same companies" (I put that in quotes, because at that time any of your personally available scores were some wacky simulation, and not a true fico score, even from fico). My highest score was over 800. Which is in the top tier.

So... this was on two credit cards, one deliberately kept open to preserve the length of the account for my rating, the other was under 4 years old. Due to changes in federal regulation, my available unsecured credit line had shrunk from >150% of my annual income to about 35%. I had one active car loan, and a previous auto loan I had paid off after two years. Every other account was a retailer credit account for a 0% promotional loan. I paid off my credit cards monthly and just cycled auto billing through them for the points and to keep them active. The last time I had carried a balance had been 7 years prior to applying for a mortgage. I had a history of paying loans off early.

Yes, you may be fiscally responsible and have never had any debt. In which case you may have just jumped off a cliff you are ill prepared to cope with when you apply for that jumbo mortgage. Or you may be saying screw it and planning to binge and default. Or you may just have had no money and no proven money management skills (probably the most common scenario in real life). Thus you represent more risk.

Get two credit cards. put recurring payments on them, and pay them off every month.
Keep at least one credit card around for as long as possible, even if the terms are lame. Just some put a small monthly subscription on it and leave it. Because length of your oldest account counts.
If you are in a state that forbids terms preventing early repayment, get a car loan even if you don't need it and pay it off early.
When places want to lend you money at 0%, take that opportunity and pay it off early.

For the early repayment, especially on 0%, I'd pay for at least 90 days.

You'll be fiscally responsible and your credit rating will be fine.

 

[Armenius]

I don't think breaking these companies up is the answer. Because you just have LOTS of small social media companies, all still JUST as biased, but who can now pull the "We got broken up! See! There's competition!" argument out of their asses.

What REALLY needs to happen is some form of Internet Bill Of Rights.

And back it by a fine structure that could, charitably, be described as "ruinous".
Because these companies are so big, if they get ordered to pay out $100K, they'll laugh, pay the fine and keep going without changing a thing.
Also, give these people the option between common carrier status and curated content.
They can have one or the other. NOT BOTH.


By principle, regulation is a Bad Thing.
But leaving these companies alone is simply going to encourage these people to silence anyone who doesn't buy into their ideology.
And it'll just get worse over time.

THIS. I constantly grow weary of the argument that private entities are exempt. So much of our speech happens online these days that it should be considered a public forum, and those platforms that enable open exchange must have First Amendment protections.

 

[kju1]

THIS. I constantly grow weary of the argument that private entities are exempt. So much of our speech happens online these days that it should be considered a public forum, and those platforms that enable open exchange must have First Amendment protections.

Then vote to have the law changed .

You are pretty wrong here.

1) you don't have to have credit cards. You HAVE to have open active accounts. Otherwise your credit history is stale and stale get dinked for points.
2) yes, if your open accounts are unsecured credit, you DO have to use them. Otherwise they aren't active.
3) You do NOT have to carry a certain amount of debt on them.

From my experience, when I went to buy my house (first, and currently only), I got my credit reports. They were 76x 79x and 79x when I checked with the three companies. The one with the 76x score also listed my current employer as someone I hadn't worked for for over a decade at that time. Fortunately that company was not one the mortgage company used. On a hard pull, byt the mortgage company, they got back higher actual scores than were being estimated for me by the "same companies" (I put that in quotes, because at that time any of your personally available scores were some wacky simulation, and not a true fico score, even from fico). My highest score was over 800. Which is in the top tier.

So... this was on two credit cards, one deliberately kept open to preserve the length of the account for my rating, the other was under 4 years old. Due to changes in federal regulation, my available unsecured credit line had shrunk from >150% of my annual income to about 35%. I had one active car loan, and a previous auto loan I had paid off after two years. Every other account was a retailer credit account for a 0% promotional loan. I paid off my credit cards monthly and just cycled auto billing through them for the points and to keep them active. The last time I had carried a balance had been 7 years prior to applying for a mortgage. I had a history of paying loans off early.

Yes, you may be fiscally responsible and have never had any debt. In which case you may have just jumped off a cliff you are ill prepared to cope with when you apply for that jumbo mortgage. Or you may be saying screw it and planning to binge and default. Or you may just have had no money and no proven money management skills (probably the most common scenario in real life). Thus you represent more risk.

Get two credit cards. put recurring payments on them, and pay them off every month.
Keep at least one credit card around for as long as possible, even if the terms are lame. Just some put a small monthly subscription on it and leave it. Because length of your oldest account counts.
If you are in a state that forbids terms preventing early repayment, get a car loan even if you don't need it and pay it off early.
When places want to lend you money at 0%, take that opportunity and pay it off early.

For the early repayment, especially on 0%, I'd pay for at least 90 days.

You'll be fiscally responsible and your credit rating will be fine.

I never understood the hard line no debt. I abhor being in debt but when someone says they will give me a 0% loan on something...fuck how can you say not to that as long as you can afford the item in the first place? Note the affordable aspect there...I never buy something I cant afford to pay off (outside of my house) immediately.

But if you give me a 0% loan to buy a phone? Fuck yeah, I will just take that $900 and invest it so that by the time I have paid off that loan I have turned that 900 into 1000 or more. Hell at the very least you can put it into a savings account and earn .01% on it and be like 1 dollar richer than if you paid for the phone outright...

 

[Mode13]

Where is Joseph Seed when you need him.

 

[Deleted member 93354]

Huh? What alot of it boils down to is people are to the point they are established in an ecosystem (IOS) and the vast majority of non-tech people will not remove themselves from it because it "Just works" and they have $$$ invested in apps that can't be transfered to Android easily. Iphone sales have been more or less constant over the past few years and as long as Apple keeps getting those same people to upgrade their iphones every 2 years or so, they will keep making $$$.

I used to switch between the two, but just decided to stay with the iPhone the past couple years because it did what I wanted it do without fighting with it and they seem to hold up better then the Android phones I had (though I never had a samsung)

Most apps these days are free or very low cost. And there are more Android apps than iOS ones.

Apple is not the end all be all on quality either. There are plenty of great phones. Most of the time people replace a phone when their contract is up or the battery no longer holds a charge. (Replacing a battery can reach into $100+ range)

 

[wizzi01]

Then vote to have the law changed .



I never understood the hard line no debt. I abhor being in debt but when someone says they will give me a 0% loan on something...fuck how can you say not to that as long as you can afford the item in the first place? Note the affordable aspect there...I never buy something I cant afford to pay off (outside of my house) immediately.

But if you give me a 0% loan to buy a phone? Fuck yeah, I will just take that $900 and invest it so that by the time I have paid off that loan I have turned that 900 into 1000 or more. Hell at the very least you can put it into a savings account and earn .01% on it and be like 1 dollar richer than if you paid for the phone outright...

Yep. The City of Detroit has a program with 0% loans up to 25k. It was nice getting that loan to put siding and a new furnace and ac in. The monthly payment is only $150.

 

[Jagger100]

i am sure there are tons of examples of all of these companies engaging in antitrust activities.
but..... and maybe this is just me..... perhaps before going after google facebook and amazon, we should go after ATT Comcast and the currently obvious monopolistic practices at the carrier levels so we can get some real competition and growth in that sector?

oh wait, because they paid off our representatives already and the checks already cleared.... sorry google and facebook.... you appear to have not spent enough on purchasing politicians yet to escape.

ATT doesn't deny service for wrongthink.

 

[Jagger100]

downright dystopian if you got the time.

 

[Deleted member 93354]

You are pretty wrong here.

1) you don't have to have credit cards. You HAVE to have open active accounts. Otherwise your credit history is stale and stale get dinked for points.
2) yes, if your open accounts are unsecured credit, you DO have to use them. Otherwise they aren't active.
3) You do NOT have to carry a certain amount of debt on them.

From my experience, when I went to buy my house (first, and currently only), I got my credit reports. They were 76x 79x and 79x when I checked with the three companies. The one with the 76x score also listed my current employer as someone I hadn't worked for for over a decade at that time. Fortunately that company was not one the mortgage company used. On a hard pull, byt the mortgage company, they got back higher actual scores than were being estimated for me by the "same companies" (I put that in quotes, because at that time any of your personally available scores were some wacky simulation, and not a true fico score, even from fico). My highest score was over 800. Which is in the top tier.

So... this was on two credit cards, one deliberately kept open to preserve the length of the account for my rating, the other was under 4 years old. Due to changes in federal regulation, my available unsecured credit line had shrunk from >150% of my annual income to about 35%. I had one active car loan, and a previous auto loan I had paid off after two years. Every other account was a retailer credit account for a 0% promotional loan. I paid off my credit cards monthly and just cycled auto billing through them for the points and to keep them active. The last time I had carried a balance had been 7 years prior to applying for a mortgage. I had a history of paying loans off early.

Yes, you may be fiscally responsible and have never had any debt. In which case you may have just jumped off a cliff you are ill prepared to cope with when you apply for that jumbo mortgage. Or you may be saying screw it and planning to binge and default. Or you may just have had no money and no proven money management skills (probably the most common scenario in real life). Thus you represent more risk.

Get two credit cards. put recurring payments on them, and pay them off every month.
Keep at least one credit card around for as long as possible, even if the terms are lame. Just some put a small monthly subscription on it and leave it. Because length of your oldest account counts.
If you are in a state that forbids terms preventing early repayment, get a car loan even if you don't need it and pay it off early.
When places want to lend you money at 0%, take that opportunity and pay it off early.

For the early repayment, especially on 0%, I'd pay for at least 90 days.

You'll be fiscally responsible and your credit rating will be fine.

You have fallen for the myth that you have to have credit to survive.

Plenty of people like me had a credit score into the 800's. Now it's 0 because I pay for everything in cash

Cash still works. Cash is always king.

www.daveramsey.com

 

[kju1]

You have fallen for the myth that you have to have credit to survive.

Plenty of people like me had a credit score into the 800's. Now it's 0 because I pay for everything in cash

Cash still works. Cash is always king.

www.daveramsey.com

Then you're one of the very few that can afford to buy a house for cash...or you dont own a home.

 

[{NG}Fidel]

You cant share them on a left leaning platform. Nothing says there cant be a right leaning one. *shrug*



Maybe Kyle and crew are trolling the trolls?

Politics are ok on the front page, just not certain kinds of politics.
OH NOES WE ARE GOOGLE NOW! DYSTOPIAN FUTURE OH NOES.
Its so over blown, basically private citizens cant have opinions is the messaging, I am starting to think the terrorists did fucking win at this point.

 

[Deleted member 93354]

Then you're one of the very few that can afford to buy a house for cash...or you dont own a home.

You can get a house mortgage with a zero credit score. You just have to have a bigger down payment. 20% is typical. 30->40% might be what's required if you have a 0 score. (Depending on bank) It still might be 20% if you are military through their housing programs.

And Starter Houses (Pill box catalog homes) can be bought in many areas for $100K still. Saving $30K in 3 years isn't that hard. I saved $20 in 1 when I was making $50K. I got a roommate to cut down on rent cost so I could save more.

 

[kju1]

You can get a house mortgage with a zero credit score. You just have to have a bigger down payment. 20% is typical. 30->40% might be what's required if you have a 0 score. (Depending on bank) It still might be 20% if you are military through their housing programs.

And Starter Houses (Pill box catalog homes) can be bought in many areas for $100K still. Saving $30K in 3 years isn't that hard. I saved $20 in 1 when I was making $50K. I got a roommate to cut down on rent cost so I could save more.

I was referring to you saying cash is king and that you pay for everything in cash. So you DO have debt then?

Saving that amount by getting a roomie only works in some areas out of the country. Around here it wont work unless you have like 5 room mates or live 4 hours away from your workplace. Rent is absurdly high here compared to what jobs pay. When I was renting it was 1,200/month for a 1BR. I couldnt find an efficiency or studio. Making that work on 60k/yr was rough (thats what I was making back then). I couldnt afford a house until I got a much higher paying job...and even then I had to use an FHA program to buy it. It was also a foreclosure so Ive been putting a lot of sweat equity into it...

But thats an aside. Like I said I was commenting on your cash is king and always use cash comment. Its simply not feasible for most people to pay for a big ticket item like a house with cash.

 

[Dullard]

You cant share them on a left leaning platform. Nothing says there cant be a right leaning one. *shrug*

Maybe Kyle and crew are trolling the trolls?

Ever notice how posts here don't get deleted for leaning left or leaning right? Don't be an asshole, no nips or naughty bits, and you can praise or blast Marx or Trump equally.

It's not complicated. Those who say "Google/Facebook/Twitter are companies, they should be able to edit content as they see fit" might miss the point that this website is a company that could do those things, too. But it doesn't.

Ever wonder why?

 

[kju1]

Ever notice how posts here don't get deleted for leaning left or leaning right? Don't be an asshole, no nips or naughty bits, and you can praise or blast Marx or Trump equally.

It's not complicated. Those who say "Google/Facebook/Twitter are companies, they should be able to edit content as they see fit" might miss the point that this website is a company that could do those things, too. But it doesn't.

Ever wonder why?

I was joking with the trolling comment. Didn't think I had to point that out.

 

[Pieter3dnow]

Maybe they could copy the left some more?
1. breaking windows
2. burning cars
3. megaphoning peoples ears that just want to eat or watch a show
4. scream incoherently at the sky
5. destroy: comic series, movie franchises, video game franchises, and now Linux
6. Trapping people in their cars that are just trying to get to work
7. going after peoples families and revenue for simply having a different opinion
8. destroying entire college campuses
9. ect, ect, ect.

I am a Libertarian and I hate the current left so much that I will vote for Trump just as a middle finger to them. You only have yourselves to blame, yet I am sure you will reflect that on me and others like me somehow. Probably by some -ism or -phobia.

Whataboutism?

 

[Deleted member 93354]

I was referring to you saying cash is king and that you pay for everything in cash. So you DO have debt then?

Saving that amount by getting a roomie only works in some areas out of the country. Around here it wont work unless you have like 5 room mates or live 4 hours away from your workplace. Rent is absurdly high here compared to what jobs pay. When I was renting it was 1,200/month for a 1BR. I couldnt find an efficiency or studio. Making that work on 60k/yr was rough (thats what I was making back then). I couldnt afford a house until I got a much higher paying job...and even then I had to use an FHA program to buy it. It was also a foreclosure so Ive been putting a lot of sweat equity into it...

But thats an aside. Like I said I was commenting on your cash is king and always use cash comment. Its simply not feasible for most people to pay for a big ticket item like a house with cash.

No I don't have debt. And I'm well ahead on the standard retirement curve. But I do admit getting a fha mortgage on my first home.

But then I discovered Dave Ramsey and have been debt free since.

It can be done. Lots of people do it. I leached off my parents till 25 and saved. By 27 I had my first house. No other debts.

But it doesn't negate my point. You can still get home loans with a zero credit score.

 

[Dullard]

I was joking with the trolling comment. Didn't think I had to point that out.

I should have snipped out the troll section, as I was really responding to the first two sentences.

Google/Facebook/Twitter feel the need to stifle dissenting opinions for their Purity of Essence, while this platform doesn't. I find that a strange position for them to take.

 

[maxz01]

My guess is the feds are using this threat to extort a few billions dollars from the big tech companies. Just donate to us and we will not come after you..

 

[The_Capulet]

You are pretty wrong here.

1) you don't have to have credit cards. You HAVE to have open active accounts. Otherwise your credit history is stale and stale get dinked for points.
2) yes, if your open accounts are unsecured credit, you DO have to use them. Otherwise they aren't active.
3) You do NOT have to carry a certain amount of debt on them.

From my experience, when I went to buy my house (first, and currently only), I got my credit reports. They were 76x 79x and 79x when I checked with the three companies. The one with the 76x score also listed my current employer as someone I hadn't worked for for over a decade at that time. Fortunately that company was not one the mortgage company used. On a hard pull, byt the mortgage company, they got back higher actual scores than were being estimated for me by the "same companies" (I put that in quotes, because at that time any of your personally available scores were some wacky simulation, and not a true fico score, even from fico). My highest score was over 800. Which is in the top tier.

So... this was on two credit cards, one deliberately kept open to preserve the length of the account for my rating, the other was under 4 years old. Due to changes in federal regulation, my available unsecured credit line had shrunk from >150% of my annual income to about 35%. I had one active car loan, and a previous auto loan I had paid off after two years. Every other account was a retailer credit account for a 0% promotional loan. I paid off my credit cards monthly and just cycled auto billing through them for the points and to keep them active. The last time I had carried a balance had been 7 years prior to applying for a mortgage. I had a history of paying loans off early.

Yes, you may be fiscally responsible and have never had any debt. In which case you may have just jumped off a cliff you are ill prepared to cope with when you apply for that jumbo mortgage. Or you may be saying screw it and planning to binge and default. Or you may just have had no money and no proven money management skills (probably the most common scenario in real life). Thus you represent more risk.

Get two credit cards. put recurring payments on them, and pay them off every month.
Keep at least one credit card around for as long as possible, even if the terms are lame. Just some put a small monthly subscription on it and leave it. Because length of your oldest account counts.
If you are in a state that forbids terms preventing early repayment, get a car loan even if you don't need it and pay it off early.
When places want to lend you money at 0%, take that opportunity and pay it off early.

For the early repayment, especially on 0%, I'd pay for at least 90 days.

You'll be fiscally responsible and your credit rating will be fine.

You're completely missing the point.

Either way, they require open credit to increase your score while actively profiting off of you signing up for credit cards. If you can't see the clear unethical conflict of interest there, you need to pull your head out of your ass. You refute his claims, then go on to detail exactly what he said. You're forced to keep open credit cards, despite not needing them, just to play their game. Except their game dictates things that need to be federally protected against them, such as your ability to purchase a home or business, get a job, and otherwise build any true wealth or success.

FUCK THAT. Seriously.

 

[Oldmodder]

I must admit knowing what happened to Standard oil in 1912 ( if memory serve me right ) then looking at other companies today in what i feel are a similar position, and nothing happen to them.
Then as a outsider at the receiving end of questionable facts, then i have been thinking " there is something rotten in the states of America" to mashup a old english play write.
Anyways in many cases you cant even "vote" with your wallet as these colossus are omnipresent so even if you wanted to you cant get around them, or if you can it will have s substantial cost that you should not really have just for choosing to opt out of something simple.

 

[SSimmons05]

And this is what happens when you put pure evil and his henchmen in the White House.

 

[singe_101]

Trump sends mixed messages depending on what day it is. He said this while on the campaign trail:

"We're losing a lot of people because of the internet. We have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that internet up in some ways. Somebody will say, 'Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.' These are foolish people."
-Donald Trump, Dec. 2015

He wanted to challenge or revoke NBC's license. Though it would have to be more specific and Comcast holds licenses for various NBC stations. I think they would sue. It's still possible though he might also have to fire Pai first.

 

[c3k]

The Obama administration certainly was hostile toward whistleblowers, however I haven't seen any evidence Trump isn't staying the course on that. On the contrary, he claimed flipping "almost ought to be illegal." That sounds as anti-whistleblower as it gets to me. I think you would need to show evidence to show Obama had more media repercussions than all previous presidents combined, that sounds like hypebole considering how much we controlled the media during the WWII and the Red Scare years.


Don't get me wrong, I'm in favor of ANY president taking an aggressive anti-trust stance, but I think your assessment of the situation goes against a lot of evidence to the contrary.

Obama had the US Government =TAP= the phone of a reporter he did not like. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fox-ne...ored-by-obama-administration-court-documents/

Yes, that's left-wing CBS news reporting on it.

I agree with SSimmins05: Obama and his admin was pure evil. Used the organs of state power to coerce behavior against his opponents. (IRS targeting, DOJ, State Department scams, tapping journalists, etc.)