That's a fair assessment, hence the quotations. My way of looking at it was from the corporations' perspective, who collectively have to spend more money innova

That's a fair assessment, hence the quotations. My way of looking at it was from the corporations' perspective, who collectively have to spend more money innovating while having their margins squeezed. Thus in the short term, the harder everyone competes, the smaller the net profit "pie". You're right that in the long term it benefits consumers, and possibly the surviving companies after competition has died down and they can enjoy the fruits of their innovation.