Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Ownership and market control beats price competition any day. I wonder where the energy companies are tied in to these consumer supply giants. Probably through big finance and bigger banks. Ironically breaking P&G's monopoly was why Wal-mart was started.
Careful Coalman. The whole nation of France might be upset by the implication that they are one inch long. And Fried.
On a smaller scale, consider our mid 90's video store problem.
We had a lot of local stores to rent movies from. The largest of the small chains was Carbonated Video. They had several stores in the area, and the best DVD selection (DVD's were still new then). You could call them on Friday and reserve a movie and they'd hold it behind the counter for you until you picked it up after work. Grab a pizza on the way home and you were good.
Carbonated had this sweet deal. You could pay $20 and get the equivalent of a punch card (but they kept track on their computer) for 10 DVD rentals. That's right, $2 each.
Enter Blockbuster. With broad expansion and national advertising, they cannibalized enough sales from Carbonated (and the other independent video stores) to put them and everyone else out of business.
So now, if we wanted to rent a movie, Blockbuster was our ONLY choice. And they charged almost $5 a pop. Hell, back then you could almost see a first run movie for that price. We hated Blockbuster, and only utilized them when we were just desperate.
We were one of the first subscribers to Netflix and have gleefully watched Blockbuster's downfall.
Now, for those whose immediate knee-jerk reaction would be to use the power of the government to split these monopolies up, or to regulate them even more, that's NOT the answer. Understand that without the help of the government, these monopolies would not have gotten this big. A corporation does not expand itself so huge if it wasn't for the government helping and bailing them out. The best way to break up these megaliths is to LOWER the regulations, so that it becomes financially feasible for smaller players to enter the market place and compete with these guys.
that is just a local US listing fot eh corporations actauly competing;its a wrold econmy remmber.In the US small business makes up the largest segemnt of business now and has since shotly after the 70's.Competition is good and i well remmber when smaller local companies actaulyl has no competiiton in local amrket for mnay goods and price wehre every high.Its gotten better ;not worse :IMO.
Now, for those whose immediate knee-jerk reaction would be to use the power of the government to split these monopolies up, or to regulate them even more, that's NOT the answer. Understand that without the help of the government, these monopolies would not have gotten this big. A corporation does not expand itself so huge if it wasn't for the government helping and bailing them out. The best way to break up these megaliths is to LOWER the regulations, so that it becomes financially feasible for smaller players to enter the market place and compete with these guys.
I couldn't agree more, but realistically, under the current scheme, there is no possible way to achieve that.
So long as political power and legislation continues to be bought and sold like any commodity, there's no end to the stupidity.
Corporations, unions, PACs, think-tanks, special interest groups and the like have to be removed from the political process. Congress will never do that. Granted Congress has introduced to pieces of legislation that were touted as "election campaign finance reform" but they were garbage, being weak and ineffective.
So long as those groups can control legislation, they will continue to consolidate their monopolistic organizations, and press for legislation that bars new entrants to the market and penalizes smaller competitors.
That is just a domestic list. The world market provices mcuh mroe competition to expand that list. We certainly don't want more government which just adds to price;is very inefficent and just adds cost with little benefit for dollar spent.
Uhhh...these are product lines.....not monopolies. Why would you want a Butterfinger candy bar production line broken up from the Nestle Crunch production line?
You guys are insane in the membrane.
Wrigley USED to be it's own company and totally free of debt.
It got bought out. Cadbury used to be it's own company and got bought out.
The days of a small start up making it big, as big as these guys it pretty much gone.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
and have gleefully watched Blockbuster's downfall.
