BREAK UP THE MONOPOLIES: banking, pharma, insurance, media, food producers, political parties...

[elehhhhna]

The thread about WellsFargoBank forclosing on a cancer patient whose insurance won't pay for her life-saving drugs demonstrates that monopolies in banking, insurance, pharma, etc. have created a situation where they don't even have to pretend to give service, give a shit, or consider how the PUBLIC (customers) perceive them. Why not? BECAUSE WE'RE CAPTIVE to MONOPOLIES.

BREAK THEM UP NOW.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. You forgot one

[99Forever]

4. Indeed.

In fact, by far the most heinous, expensive, and powerful of them all.

But that doesn't negate the OP's list either, by any means. the Corporatocracy MUST be stopped or this Nation and all it once stood for will be destroyed.

[orpupilofnature57]

13. Agreed !

All of them are working in sync against the most of us.

[safeinOhio]

22. Also, big oil is too big.

No big company should control oil from the ground to your gas tank.

[BOG PERSON]

2. uh, monopolies will eventually reconstitute themselves in some other form

in the long run wouldn't it save a lot of trouble to just abolish capital altogether?

[orpupilofnature57]

7. Just abolish capital gains entitlements altogether. n/t

[BOG PERSON]

17. come on, dude

use your imagination. politics begins where policy ends.

[orpupilofnature57]

25. And there's physically more of us than

there is of them 99% - 1%, we just subscribe to the same enablers.

[JHB]

26. Then you brush them back again...

...which is something which has been accomplished in the past. What does "abolish capital" even look like?

[BOG PERSON]

48. beats me

you might as well ask me what technology will look like in 25 years.

[JHB]

60. What did technology look like 25 years ago? 1987?

Most of it looked pretty much the same. A lot of the things hat have been developed since then I read about in science fiction. People were seeing possibilities, extrapolating, trying to looks at benefits, drawbacks, and other effects. Sure, a lot of the details were wrong, but people then could picture the sort of things we take for granted now.

If your best answer is "beats me", then you have nothing.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Political parties requires a constitutional amendment

mind you, I would not mind it, but the duopoly is a product of that musty 1789 document.

(And we need it, I am sure Jefferson would not mind proportional representation)

[BOG PERSON]

5. think of monopolies like T1000 in Terminator 2

[orpupilofnature57]

8. Yes ,mindless, heartless amoebas with one goal

Consume!!!!!

[BOG PERSON]

19. wasn't that really john connor's goal though?

forget my earlier comment about t1000 being a metaphor for monopoly capital. in the terminator movies, robots are the proletariat, and their cause is just.

[orpupilofnature57]

21. Only if production, efficiency, and subservience take priority

over human beings . I thought mere survival of our species was John Connors goal.

[BOG PERSON]

49. yes, john connor is what you might call

a radical speciesist. a militant species supremacist. or something

[orpupilofnature57]

50. Did you see Terminator 2 ?

He was a visionary, Time traveling, lucky once guy.

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. We're into the 5th successive administration that has refused to enforce the law.

The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed at the end of the 19th century to prevent exactly what we are experiencing today. It was effective and it was popular among the people, the parasites, not so much.

President Carter used it to break up the Bell monopoly, then reagan, 41, Clinton, Bush the lesser, and now President Obama, have not only refused to enforce the law of the land, but have actively worked to accelerate this cancer.

[orpupilofnature57]

9. Teddy Roosevelt was ostracized for it

one of the only reasons all republicans don't suck, Teddy is one of the FEW of them.

[BOG PERSON]

14. teddy roosevelt was a racist cop

[orpupilofnature57]

27. If that was the case only the rich would

have ever seen Yellowstone national park .

[Cooley Hurd]

29. ...and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.

It's never wise to judge historic persons by the standards of our time.

[BOG PERSON]

44. people knew slavery was wrong in jefferson's day

but if being rich is wrong, who would want to be right?

[orpupilofnature57]

52. Only in Mass and NY

[BOG PERSON]

53. i wonder how the slaves felt about it (n/t)

[orpupilofnature57]

55. Like militant supremacists oh yeah and Radical species

or " Speciesist " like you made up. Come on Dude, the lily is gold.

[BOG PERSON]

56. i didn't make that up! believe it or not.

i learned it from Peter Singer

Animals feel pain and feeling pain is the grounds for one's interest to be considered. In general one should not cause another pain if it can be avoided. Having pain brought upon one, or having one's pain not addressed by the other, is a moral call upon us, claims Singer.

Thus to be a "speciesist" is to consider the interests of one's own species as more important that the interest of another species MERELY on the grounds of membership in the species.

Singer is not saying that all interests are identical. He roundly denies that. However, in relation to the question of suffering pain, he holds that the pain of an animal is just as important as the pain of a human if pain is the only consideration.

Suppose there is only room for ONE being to enter a space that will be protected from an upcoming deadly storm. There are ten candidates for the one space. Without question nine of them must be excluded. How shall we choose? We must use the principle of equality in guiding our choice.

http://www.websteruniv.edu/~corbetre/philosophy/animals/singer.html

[OnyxCollie]

30. And FDR interned the Japanese and forced them to give up their stuff.

He sold out a small minority to the corporations. (Farm corporations profited greatly from the internment. The value of the Japanese farms in 1985 dollars- between $800 million and $1.2 billion.)

It was acceptable to be anti-Asiatic for Dems and Repubs alike.

FDR did go against corporate pressure to provide benefits for the majority (of non-Asians) and for that he was viewed as a class traitor.

Now, however, rather than sell out a small minority, the 99% is being bled dry.

I don't see anyone (with power, anyway) standing up to corporate interests.

[orpupilofnature57]

57. My Avatar, and he was exiled from the world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

[Egalitarian Thug]

37. Yes he was, at least in the Hearst owned press. But that was the OG GOP. n/t

[elleng]

38. Right, and this a major reason for many of our problems today.

Along with it 'deregulation' has moved, and provided 'exemptions' from anti-trust in many cases. ('Began' w Carter.)

[Egalitarian Thug]

42. One of the biggies, that's for sure. kick n/t

[iemitsu]

10. the media definately ought to be separated from

the grips of corporate holdings.
too much conflict of interest for an institution, whose job it is to provide us with accurate information.
we never hear of any problems associated with nuclear power or many other issues of public concern.
monopolies are bad for everyone.

[orpupilofnature57]

11. Walter Cronkite would say it, but Joe scar

won't because that's the Misanthrope Sycophant Monsters, MSM has become .

[iemitsu]

24. joe Scarborough is a sleazy whore who was handed a house seat,

which he lost as a result of a dead intern, he was then handed radio/television spots so he could continue to have undue influence in our lives. who is this jerk? he does not have this position because people wanted or requested his voice. he is paid to promote his bosses views. his perspective does not reflect honest evaluation of evidence.
of course, all media figures are in the same position but something about joe reminds me of the oliver north story.
i can't convince myself that he is an authority on any subject.

[mother earth]

12. They got a pheonomenal boost & complicity under GW. K & R!

[Tigress DEM]

15. I say we go ALL THE WAY back and make Corporations SHORT term.... they want to be people?

Then they can DIE at 30, 50 or 75 and then all their groupies have to start over.

30 or below if they are found to be evil, polluting, abusing power, contributing secretely to politicians (we'll have to get campaign finance reform in there too)

50 if they behave themselves and

75 if they are the kind of corporation that REALLY gives back to the country and brings it's people along for the profit rides.

[lonestarnot]

16. Now that's an idea. Lifespan, what about the ones that walk in front of a bus at age 2 or 3?

[reformist2]

32. I love this idea. At age 50 (or whatever), they get broken up into pieces, by law.

[Tigress DEM]

36. Original Founding Fathers Concept - not mine

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/09/02/founding-fathers

<snip>
After the nation’s founding, corporations were granted charters by the state as they are today. Unlike today, however, corporations were only permitted to exist 20 or 30 years and could only deal in one commodity, could not hold stock in other companies, and their property holdings were limited to what they needed to accomplish their business goals. And *********perhaps the most important facet of all this*********** is that most states in the early days of the nation had laws on the books that made *******any political contribution by corporations a criminal offense**********.

[dreamnightwind]

54. thanks, hadn't seen that article - nt

[laundry_queen]

18. Monopoly

Last edited Sun Sep 23, 2012, 07:57 PM - Edit history (1)

is the inevitable end result of an unregulated free market. I always find it funny that people who harp about communism and how it's horrible because it's single-entity central control of the economy by government, are okay with single-entity central control by corporation.

Edited for moronic spelling error.

[Scuba]

20. +1

[leftstreet]

23. +1

Good point

[freshwest]

58. +1

[tama]

59. Not unregulated

Laws giving legal forms of corporations ARE regulation, not unregulation.

[laundry_queen]

61. Not sure what you are getting at.

Unregulated capitalism bends towards monopoly. There are some regulations in place currently to try to prevent this, but they are weak and consolidations happen regularly. Lots of predatory capitalism going on right now. The end result may come more slowly but it's inevitable.

[tama]

66. Simply

that all forms of capitalistic ownership of means of production is based from the very beginning on regulation and rule by violence.

[NYC Liberal]

67. And that's the irony of a completely 'free' market.

Consumers benefit from competition.

However, it is not in the company's interest to have competition. Given no regulation, companies will do anything in their power to eliminate any and all competition. Therefore the end result of an unregulated free market is less competition, which makes things worse for consumers.

I've tried explaning this to right-wingers, libertarians, etc who want to get rid of basically all regulation. The response is usually that "Well companies won't do that because customers will get pissed off and stop buying their products." Except we've seen over and over that companies REGULARLY do things that harm their customers. They release faulty products (even ones that kill), they dump toxic waste and belch toxic smoke into the air, they jack up prices, and they don't give a damn about customer service. If all the companies are just as bad as the others, there's nowhere to go.

Many times, if not most of the time, companies get away with treating their customers like shit, or with actually harming them, because it costs lots of money and takes years to sue for a really big case. For small cases they just settle out of court and treat it as a cost of doing business, then continue on. And, of course, with a monopoly it's even worse because if you're talking about essentials (medicine, food, phone, Internet, etc) there's no way to boycott or go somewhere else when there's only one company. Or maybe a few that are all equally bad.

[HopeHoops]

28. I think we can put this in the "WELL FUCKING DUH!" department.

The monopolies are ruining us. Every fucking medical bill I've got is from Pinnacle Health now because they bought everything in the area, including my GP practice. The banking industry is worse. They use different names, but are all tied into one of six or seven major banks. We're doomed.

[RoccoR5955]

31. Better yet

Nationalize them all.
Then there will be no more greed, as WE THE PEOPLE will decide how big and fast they can grow, and whether or not they can move factories overseas!

[defacto7]

46. Of course, then someone

ends up deciding WHO we the people are and WHAT the people actually want. If we can figure out that one, maybe you've got something.

[ChazInAz]

33. We need a cut-throat muckraker with a megaphone.

In the late 1800's, Ambrose Bierce spent years investigating and exposing Collis P. Huntington and the other "Railrogues" for their monopolistic, dishonest businesses. Bierce won the battle and got back all the funds that Huntington had misappropriated from the government.
Doesn't look like we have anyone of his stature or courage to face down the bully boys the way he did. When Huntington encountered him on the steps of the Capitol and asked what his price was, Bierce replied that it was the full sum owed to the government and the people. Let's see some of our current batch of "journalists" do that!

[socialindependocrat]

34. We've seen the buy-outs since the 80s

I worked for a large company and they said in the 80s that the larger businesses would buy out the small and in the end there would be 2-3 major players in our business.

I thought that this was leading us back to monopolies but "knew" that there were laws against monopolies and figured that something would be done about it.

When I was little my parents would talk about the "Great Depression" and I would ask
"What if it happens again?" and my mother would tell me that there were laws in place that wouldn't allow that to happen again.

Talk about DUH!

What the hell are we paying our congress for if not to remember and follow the laws that were put in place to protect us from this shit!

We need to start writting to congress and demand that the laws be obeyed and get large businesses t spin off their purchased competitors and we need to get the banks to split up.

After all, if the laws are already there we just need to get them focused on the right tasks.

Then we need to get congress to list all the laws that protect us (like the 10 commandments)
and have them displayed in the front of both houses to remind the idiots what the rules are!!

I also asked Pelosi (when she was speaker) to start every session with a reminder that all actions and laws created are supposed to be to better the lives of all America people.

This - "Oh gee, we forgot" shit is for the birds!!

[HiPointDem]

35. kr

[porphyrian]

40. Stop the robber barons of this generation. n/t

[The Doctor.]

41. I know a way to do that....

But no one that can help me make it happen has responded yet.

[Rex]

43. YES!!!!

I am all for it! America use to have something called anti-trust laws...shame we don't still have a government that cares about the populace. I doubt we ever will.

[skeewee08]

45. Dame u WFB

[defacto7]

47. It's ethics...

Anyone noticed how far the ethical bar has been pushed? The GOP has pushed it so far as to disregard the constitution, the majority, the law, the person-hood of people, spread complete fabrications to their fundamental ends, and to do it right out in open forum. They have found they can go as far as they want and they can get away with it, or they believe they can.

It's happened on both sides but not to the extremes we see today an with such abandon. This is how it has been done throughout history just before there is an extremest coup or a fold over into fascism.

We better call it, and knock the hell out of this push toward totalitarianism. Once it gets to a certain point, I don't think there is any chance of turning back outside of civil war. And remember, there is no more "big daddy country" who is bigger and more powerful who can come to save us. We are global now. No more living on an island.

[Cleita]

51. I agree, but how if our elected reps and senators won't?

It used to be that banks were chartered in one state only. They couldn't operate as banks in other states. I believe insurance was similar because they had to be answerable to the insurance commissioners of the states they operated in. In order to go back to those days of regulations, it would take Congress reversing the damage by bringing back the laws that protected consumers. This they seem unwilling to do.

[wtmusic]

62. The largest problem facing America - bar none.

Enforcing antitrust should be high on the list of Obama Part Deux.

[banned from Kos]

63. NONE of these are monopolies for crying out loud.

Wells Fargo only has about a 10% market share.

[wtmusic]

64. Heavens, is that all?

[Zorra]

65. Great idea. Occupy has been working on this for over a year now.

Occupy Wall Street. The 1%.

That kind of thing...


It's going to take ultra-mass participation in direct actions by the people to get this done. Politicians are not, going to do this for us. Ever. The few truly progressive legislators in office are basically powerless to oppose the overwhelming number of legislators who are employed by the 1%.

And the problem is, the 1% is deliberately squeezing the 99% economically in order to render us as powerless to resist as they possibly can.

The 1% need their asses kicked to the curb, and no one is going to kick their ass for us.