Distributed monopolies.

Editor,

Shibboleths about "competition" between giant corporations amount to abstract theorizing that correlates to nothing in the real world.

Look at the telecommunications industry in this country. A handful of "competitors" -- which amount to a distributed monopoly, to coin a networking phrase -- are having a field day ripping the American people off. They charge us through the nose for pitifully meager rations of bandwidth as compared, for example, to Japan, where 100 times the bandwidth is available for 1/10th of the price.

Or the pharmaceutical industry. Or cable TV news, where equally worthless garbage specifically designed to misinform and dis-inform the public is spewed by a handful of "competitors" which, again, amount to a distributed monopoly -- or more to the point monopoly capital's answer to central planning.

The "health insurance" corporations are poised, with the help of their vassals in Washington, to crush the American public with high-sounding paeans to Adam Smith that amount to one more mountain of corporate lies disguised as fairness and concern for the value consumers get for their money.

re: "Health Reform’s Missing Ingredient" (9/17/2009)