Re: AT&T: deforesting, pricegouging....
my question is...how can we possibly have monopoly laws in a capitalist system? it seems to work for a while and the whole concept of free enterprise...market economy...blah blah blah, but by definition, ultimately no monopolies in a capitalist system is an oxymoron. it's the old adage..it takes money to make money. the more money you have, the more money you can use to buy cheap materials and labor and outsell your competition. therefore, eventually, there are a handful of companies controlling certain markets. and really in theory, could be one company controlling every market. remember folks, our system is not that old, relatively speaking, and we had no model. we are pioneering our own catastrophe. i think a lot of people who saw that monopolies are inevitable did not speak out, because capitalism was pretty new and they were probably trying to do a little venturing themselves...and everyone has to eat. i don't know where the voice of reason went to or if we every really had it, but one thing i know for sure...monopolies are inherent of a capitalist system, plain and simple; they sometimes just take a while to transpire. i think that what we saw with rockafeller and such, that the mentality is that monopolies are a thing of the past. and of course the government made laws against it, so we have nothing to worry about, right?
Despite decades of battles with the government - resulting, finally, in the breakup of Standard Oil Trust in 1911 - Rockefeller never wavered in his belief that centralized control of industry by a handful of strong-minded capitalists was a good thing.
In discussions with Wired, Ron Chernow, author of the recent best-seller Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, pointed out that "few of the founding fathers of our industrial system believed in free markets.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.04/rockefeller.html