« Taking Step Four at HR Rehab | Main | Rebellion at HR Rehab »
Oligopoly Is A Dirty Word
By Ron | December 23, 2008
(I’m taking a break from HR Rehab today)…
I’m sorry, but it’s time that the “Big 3″ die a natural death. The Automobilia Rexus Americana has outlived it’s time; it’s extinct as the dinosaurs. Big business, small business, medium size business are not the enemy; Oligopolies are the enemy. The collusion of a small group of sellers in bed with themselves and their unions have milked the American public for over 100 years now and it’s time to let the free market do it’s thing. The American Car Manufacturing model worked fine before their was real competition. Prior to Honda and Toyota and the like, the UAW would negotiate with GM, GM would capitulate to their demands because they knew that Chrysler and Ford would do likewise. The costs of these excessive demands would then be passed on to the consumer and everyone was happy. Competition was pretty much limited to style, but along came the oil shortages in the 70’s and, so did Japanese cars. The rest is history.
President Bush says, “I’m a free market guy, but I can’t just let the American automobile industry go down the tubes.” C’mon…no ”free-market guy” would want to prop-up this Oligopoly.
I also suspect that the oil industry is an Oligopoly. I’m not against oil companies or automobile companies; I’m against oligopolies. When I was a kid in the fifties, there used to be gas price wars all of the time. On top of the cheap gas (19 cents a gallon), gas stations would give away free stuff if you bought gas there. Not only would they check your tires and oil levels, they would wash your windows - that’s how the free market benefits the consumers. Obviously something has changed over the years and I’m not sure what. I just know that the solution is not excess profit taxes or whatever the U. S. government proposes to do about it. (1) Anti-oligopolistic measures, (2) increasing the supply of oil and refineries, and (3) private enterprise developing alternative fuels are the way to go.
Unfortunately, free market solutions are probably not going to be employed and Oligopolies will be allowed to continue on with taxpayer subsidies. What the heck, farmers have been paid for not growing things for a long time and the milk industry has been subsidized for years… the beat goes on.
Topics: HR |
December 24th, 2008 at 9:46 am
[...] Cuban, Ron Ulrici , Jody DeVere, Tim Walker and probably hundreds [...]