This post is a response to a question initially posed on Quora, and can also be accessed via “https://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-government-sometimes-support-monopolists/answer/Antonio-Amaral-1“
Why can a private citizen like Elon Musk address the nation from the Oval Office like he was elected president?
Government representatives support their donors because they owe them — plain and simple. For Elon Musk to support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign with a $270 million financial boost means he expected something in return. That something just happened to be the keys to the halls of power.
Made even worse by the Citizen’s United Ruling that money equals speech, the entire nation has been converted into a kleptocracy. Anyone with enough money can buy their representative who will institute laws favouring their wealth acquisition goals.
They will use fraudulent arguments like consolidation equals efficiency and lower consumer costs, but that’s just bunk.
The harsh reality is that the nation is no longer a democracy or a government of the people, for the people, and by the people.
The U.S. is currently being stripped for parts to be sold to the highest bidder, and the entire world will suffer from its dissolution.
It’s not the government that supports monopolies but the billionaires who buy government representatives who seek to hoard as much of the nation’s wealth as possible and support consolidation while claiming to be capitalists.
Meanwhile, the useful idiots in the crowd conveniently forget how one of the key components of capitalism is competition.
Monopolies not only kill competition, they kill innovation, and they gouge consumers.
For example, anyone who has had to purchase prescription glasses can attest to how badly Luxottica has screwed them over.
Monopolies are cancer for an economy and for society as a whole. Monopolies give rise to dynasties, which push us back to a time of being ruled by monarchs in a two-class society of rulers and serfs.
Democratic governments that have not been corrupted otherwise do not support monopolies and create legislation to break up monopolies.
Sherman Antitrust Act: Definition, History, and What It Does
thotbag 