Free market forces are no longer working. The failure of the federal government to enforce anti-trust law since the Reagan administration has resulted in corporate economic power in many industries concentrating in a few oligopolies. These mega corporations collude with progressive governments to stifle smaller competitors and when they can’t stifle new competitors, the leviathan government enables them to buy out the threat resulting in less competition and even more concentration of economic power.
Concentrated economic power, allied with a large socialist state results in:
1) Less competition
2) Less innovation
3) Concentration of wealth in the hands of a few
4) Corruption in government. Big corporations fund campaigns and buy votes in Congress.
5) A complex tax code, impossible for the average person to understand, and full of special provisions for big corporations, many of whom pay little or no taxes while small businesses and individuals are crushed.
6) Direct subsidies and/or exemptions from laws for mega corporations who buy political influence (GE, Solyndra, Tesla, big pharma).
7) A legal system too expensive for average citizens to seek redress from lawbreaking corporate actors.
8) Corruption of the judiciary (Kelo decision) where the property rights of citizens are trampled on by big corporations enabled by government.
9) Government intervention with subsidies to protect prop up financially ailing businesses from bankruptcies (remember 2008 and the bank and auto industry bailout). Local and state governments take tax revenue from small business while doling out tax exemptions and rebates to large businesses.
10) Fewer jobs. Every merger results in losses of hundreds if not thousands of middle class jobs.
The last few elections have proven the GOP serves the oligarchs and not the conservative voters they profess to serve.
All of the above serves to make the economy inefficient, society corrupt, and government rapacious at the expense of individual freedom. Breaking up the oligopolies into smaller companies will bring vigorous competition and innovation to stagnant markets as well as create more jobs.
Excellent!
Although liberals complain about big corporations, they always legislate to help them grow. Why? Because when real socialism comes, it makes it much easier to nationalize.