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Mergers can actually increase the competitiveness of a sector if two smaller players can stay alive by merging and more effectively compete with the bigger play

Mergers can actually increase the competitiveness of a sector if two smaller players can stay alive by merging and more effectively compete with the bigger players. An example is the proposed grocery merger of Kroger (#4) and Albertsons (#9), which the FTC is trying to block. https://progressivegrocer.com/pg-100-ranking-top-food-retailers-north-america https://progressivegrocer.com/pg-100-ranking-top-food-retail... If the political left consistently supported competition it would support charter schools and vouchers instead of the neighborhood public school monopoly.

JohnFen 3y ago
> Mergers can actually increase the competitiveness of a sector if two smaller players can stay alive by merging and more effectively compete with the bigger players. You're describing multiple companies coalescing into fewer companies. How does that do anything to increase competition? > An example is the proposed grocery merger of Kroger (#4) and Albertsons (#9) I want the merger to fail precisely because it seriously reduces competition in my area. If this goes through, then very nearly all grocery stores (and literally all of the major grocery stores) around me would be Kroger, and I very strongly want to avoid having to do business with Kroger.
wredcoll 3y ago
Last I checked, "free market competition" isn't one of the major principles of the american political left. Speaking as someone who is probably to the left of, say, you in specific, I'm a fan of competition where it makes sense: businesses that are easily replaceable and political candidates, and not where it doesn't make sense: utilities and public schools.
sydbarrett74 3y ago
Education is a supreme public good. Privately-run charter schools do nothing more than siphon money away from state-run schools. Competition does exist in the public education sector. To wit: magnet schools. Even if privately-run charters issue a certain number of needs-based scholarships or give preference to minorities or lower-income students by reserving a certain number of slots in a lottery-based system, these private charters will over time return us to a world where by and large only the economically privileged are educated.

JohnFen 3y ago

> Mergers can actually increase the competitiveness of a sector if two smaller players can stay alive by merging and more effectively compete with the bigger players. You're describing multiple companies coalescing into fewer companies. How does that do anything to increase competition? > An example is the proposed grocery merger of Kroger (#4) and Albertsons (#9) I want the merger to fail precisely because it seriously reduces competition in my area. If this goes through, then very nearly all grocery stores (and literally all of the major grocery stores) around me would be Kroger, and I very strongly want to avoid having to do business with Kroger.

wredcoll 3y ago

Last I checked, "free market competition" isn't one of the major principles of the american political left. Speaking as someone who is probably to the left of, say, you in specific, I'm a fan of competition where it makes sense: businesses that are easily replaceable and political candidates, and not where it doesn't make sense: utilities and public schools.

sydbarrett74 3y ago

Education is a supreme public good. Privately-run charter schools do nothing more than siphon money away from state-run schools. Competition does exist in the public education sector. To wit: magnet schools. Even if privately-run charters issue a certain number of needs-based scholarships or give preference to minorities or lower-income students by reserving a certain number of slots in a lottery-based system, these private charters will over time return us to a world where by and large only the economically privileged are educated.