2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHere's an issue O'Malley is ahead of both other candidates on
From O'Malley's website:
Today in America, a handful of companies now control the vast majority of the market in industries ranging from beef, seeds, and milk; to airlines, semiconductors, and defense contracting and procurementdepressing wages and employment and dampening innovation. A first step to reversing this consolidation is to direct the U.S. Department of Justice to issue new policies to aggressively enforce our antimonopoly laws.
https://martinomalley.com/15-goals/goal-14/
The consolidation oif the economy into a handful of Giant Monopolistic Corporations has been something that been in my craw since the 1970's. And I've always been appalled that the Democratic Party has generally ignored it. We could have prevnted this along the line while these Gilded Age Monopolies were being formed. And, unfortunately it's still going on.
It's happened in every sector, and it is totally destructive to people, democracy and the notion of a competitive economy. Going after these Monster Monopolies is necessary, of we are to restore anything resembling a democracy or a working economy.
Even though I'm a Bernie guy, I don't think he is really talking about this either in the pointed way that is necessary either. So kudos to O'Malley.
giftedgirl77
(4,713 posts)I wish he would gain more traction.
elleng
(131,031 posts)FSogol
(45,504 posts)hedgehog
(36,286 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)They have helped enable it.
elleng
(131,031 posts)helped enable it.
Armstead
(47,803 posts)In addition to banking, the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996, pushed by President Clinton, was probably the biggest gift to the Media Monopolies in history.
elleng
(131,031 posts)It appears here, along with his other programs and plans: http://www.democraticunderground.com/12813600
And you're absolutely correct, Dem party has both ignored and enabled consolidation, as if they'd never heard of Teddy Roosevelt and the laws developed due to his prodding.
'On the domestic front, President Roosevelt was one of the most visible Progressives of his time. Many of his domestic policies involved fighting big industry and corruption in an attempt to help the common man. He offered the American people a Square Deal to improve their standard of living and exert more control over large domineering corporations or trusts. Trusts, which were technically illegal under the 1890 Sherman Act, attempted to consolidate business interests to create a monopoly on specific products and eliminate competition. Many businesses attacked Roosevelt as a socialist, but he ardently refuted these accusations and refuted the principles of Marxism. In truth, Roosevelt did not despise big business, and in fact realized that the trusts had indirectly increased the standard of living for nearly every American in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Roosevelt did, however, dislike the power of the trusts and the fact that the American public had little control of them. On the other hand, however, he also feared giving too much power to labor. His Square Deal policies attempted to strike a balance between the two.'
http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/troosevelt/section10.rhtml