Its not the same because some of these tech companies are de facto monopolies (more akin to the public square or a utility company). Small town bakers are not monopolies and the customer is free to do business with numerous other bakers.
Yep, communism sucks because it has no free market. Free markets are good because if something is wrong or missing, you can easily enter the market and provide a new or different product, and whether it works or not depends on you and on the customers. Having 6 billionaires own all the companies is no better than having 6 communist party central committee members making all the decisions. Hence anti-trust laws.
Let's go into the past and imagine, say, Saddam's Iraq. Everyone agrees that "evil dictator, no freedom of press !" Well, what if Saddam decides to make all media private, make the press "free" and it just happens that the Baath party members own almost all of the media and the banks? If you talk back, you don't get kidnapped and killed, but you get "deplatformed" and can't access your bank account, buy food or heat your home, because the utility companies, which are "private", have decided they don't want to do business with you.
Are we supposed to believe that this is a free society that conservatives are OK with because the government doesn't own everything?
Its not the same because some of these tech companies are de facto monopolies (more akin to the public square or a utility company). Small town bakers are not monopolies and the customer is free to do business with numerous other bakers.
Yep, communism sucks because it has no free market. Free markets are good because if something is wrong or missing, you can easily enter the market and provide a new or different product, and whether it works or not depends on you and on the customers. Having 6 billionaires own all the companies is no better than having 6 communist party central committee members making all the decisions. Hence anti-trust laws.
Let's go into the past and imagine, say, Saddam's Iraq. Everyone agrees that "evil dictator, no freedom of press !" Well, what if Saddam decides to make all media private, make the press "free" and it just happens that the Baath party members own almost all of the media and the banks? If you talk back, you don't get kidnapped and killed, but you get "deplatformed" and can't access your bank account, buy food or heat your home, because the utility companies, which are "private", have decided they don't want to do business with you.
Are we supposed to believe that this is a free society that conservatives are OK with because the government doesn't own everything?