3 ms·

The irony of capitalism. Free market is great, but corporations do everything possible not to have a free market.

• droopyEyelids 4y ago
  This is the trickiness of language. "Free market" originally (Adam Smith) meant "A market free from economic rent" Free market now means "Free to charge economic rent"
• clairity 4y ago
  "free market" is more a political slogan than an economic concept. that's why i prefer the term "fair market", which is better aligned with the underlying economic concept and conveys with it the need for a strong and independent regulatory function to rebalance concentrations of market power. in that vein, we need to break up the three major carriers who together hold ~98% of the market (principally as a result of restricted spectrum allocation). then institute an escalating tax rate based on market (revenue) share to counteract the negative externalities[0] of concentration itself. [0]: here's one random report (by barclays) that delves into what these negative externalities are on fair markets: https://www.cib.barclays/content/dam/barclaysmicrosites/ibpublic/documents/our-insights/MarketPower/Barclays-ImpactSeries5-MarketPower_final_2.4MB.pdf https://www.cib.barclays/content/dam/barclaysmicrosites/ibpu...
• lyu07282 4y ago
  This is public infrastructure, running it as a for-profit business is obviously absurd.
• durnygbur 4y ago
  Corporations prefer oligopolies with clearly divided geographical/physical spheres of influence, ideally duopolies. Monopolies are possible only in dictatures, which even corporations don't want.