# How is Ticketmaster not violating anti-trust laws?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ticketmaster-not-violating-anti-trust-laws/22574>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 16, 2000, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ticketmaster-not-violating-anti-trust-laws/22574 "2000-06-16T13:29:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![SarumanRex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@SarumanRex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SarumanRex)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2000, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ticketmaster-not-violating-anti-trust-laws/22574/21 "2000-06-19T02:26:02Z")

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> [@](#):
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> Although I get the idea… I’m still not sure. Periodically some country accuses another country of ‘dumping’: China or Korea or whoever is selling Steel and ships at less than it costs them to make them! we have to stop that!
> 
> And I am thinking… if those guys, in spite of paying their workers pitiful wages, sell us that stuff below their cost… isn’t it the time to buy and hope they keep doing the same thing for a long time?
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> The argument is that domestic industry is harmed and it may be true but only to a certain point. I mean, they can lose money for a while and duke it out and see who lasts more. If they cannot afford to lose money then they are not too healthy. So they close down. And you say, now the others raise their prices… OK, so it is time for domestic production again.  
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I happen to know a thing or two about unfair business practices (I posted a novel to the thread on whether or not you have to be evil to become really wealthy, the general consensus (IMHO) was, “No but it helps”). The only reason a company would lower its own prices to below its own production costs would be in the hopes that all their competition will die out and they will then be able to gouge the hell out of everyone ad infinitum. Once you’ve driven a few startups into bankruptcy new entrepeneurs find other businesses to compete with, at least until the courts step in and set things right. This was done frequently in the past and is the reason we have anti-trust laws.  
In regard to the “dumping” of steel it is a somewhat different matter. Many nations learned a cruel lesson during WWII (the first highly mechanized war involving tanks, airplnes, jeeps etc.), that if a nation does not have a strong domestic steel industry when a major war breaks out then they will be at a severe disadvantage to the nations (like Germany) that have one. At time of war you can’t count on being able to import enough steel to build 10,000 tanks, 50,000 jeeps, 5,000 airplanes etc. Therefore, some nations highly subsidize their blatantly inefficient steel mills. Having no immediate use for so much steel they then sell it to countries like the USA who are willing to import steel (most countries have much higher import duties than the US, we are an exporter’s dream marketplace). The practice is called dumping because a country produces endless tons of something they have no use for and then “dumps” it on some other country. IMHO we need to start charging the same sort of import duties that other nations charge to insure a strong domestic industry (not just in steel but in everything). If we need more labor than is curretly available then I say import the labor don’t export the jobs. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, DON’T EXPORT JOBS. We exported the entire textiles industry to places like Red China and it has made them strong, strong enough to bribe their way into their current favorable trade status and create a 50 billion dollar trade deficit.

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