America has a monopoly problem

Re:America has a monopoly problem by sandworm101 on Tuesday October 24, 2017 @10:46AM (#15541932)

I think it goes a step deeper. Imho the issue starts with the fundamental distrust of government. Lacking the ability to see government as a valid leader, Americans turn to corporations and billionaires. They really do believe that Apple and Dow chemical can do a better job leading the country than any elected politician. They are not worried about the monopolies. They should be, any economist would agree that monopolies are not good for consumers, but the average person is not a rational economist. I don't think Americans believe lobbying is bad. They want to be led by corporations and see lobbying as the legitimate means for them to lead.

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Re:America has a monopoly problem by wav-part on Tuesday October 24, 2017 @11:01AM (#15542056)

This thread is confusing State granted monopoly with Market granted monopoly. Economists usually talks about the former.

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Re:America has a monopoly problem by sevensor on Tuesday October 24, 2017 @11:37AM (#15542354)

> This thread is confusing State granted monopoly with Market granted monopoly. Economists usually talks about the former.

Can you really tease those apart in our mixed economy? Look at ISP monopolies, or the bizarre state of the "deregulated" electricity market and what remains of the long-distance telephone market. Or take pharma, where tremendous resources are needed to comply with regulation. Or the -- tremendous scare quotes required -- "marketplace" for health care. In a mixed economy, monopoly exists because of state and market.

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Re:America has a monopoly problem by wav-part on Tuesday October 24, 2017 @12:15PM (#15542731)

In all your examples, state acts as gate-keeper and these are local/national industries. If you have a multi-national company that is monopoly, its very likely to be market granted monopoly.

> In a mixed economy, monopoly exists because of state and market.

No. We live in global economy. Most companies have to compete globally. You might get favours from few countries but not most. Note whether your home country gives you a boost or not, is irrelevent. The success in a foreign country without its govt's blessing, is the question.

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Re:America has a monopoly problem by sevensor on Tuesday October 24, 2017 @12:22PM (#15542789)

I'm confused. The article was about the United States, which has an enormous regulatory apparatus. You're saying that's irrelevant to multi-national corporations that operate here?

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Re:America has a monopoly problem by wav-part on Tuesday October 24, 2017 @01:15PM (#15543234)

No. If some MNC is a global monopoly then the industry is lightly/none regulated by most significant countries.

Though, USA is an exception, achived arguably due to history of low market intervention. I would not say that the MNC does not care but achieving global monopoly in heavely regulated industry is very hard. Case in point, in banking industry (the most regulated sector), there is no private (or even public) global monopoly.

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Re:America has a monopoly problem by zanny on Tuesday October 24, 2017 @12:02PM (#15542606)

There are extremely few natural market monopolies, and almost all of those that exist are the kind that provide the strongest argument for collectivization of that industry - because the vast majority of such monopolies fall under the broad umbrella of infrastructure.

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Re:America has a monopoly problem by TheAdamAndChe on Tuesday October 24, 2017 @11:41AM (#15542402)

As an American who speaks to a lot of other Americans, this is definitely not the mentality that I'm seeing around me. Most people I know are becoming cynical about growing corporate control of our government and increasing income inequality. Pretty much everyone I know is worried about the monopolies.

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