Cusm –
That would be the effects of globalization in action, there. Its a typical example of the power of a national government in the hands of a private corporation. Transportation and communications allow an organization to span much further than ever before, growing in some cases (like the supermarkets) to where they can effectively dominate the market, rendering it no longer free but controlled in that sector.
Yup.
This is a new animal to contend with in modern economics, which largely isn't contending with it at all. I mean, there's debate over if something like Wal-Mart is even a "bad" thing.
Or why it appears on Word’s spellchecker as default?!
They certainly are able to offer goods to consumers more efficiently and at a lower price than private merchants, but the other effect is that other businesses can't enter the market. So, it seems to be a case of good for the consumer (at least initially), bad for free enterprise. One can no longer open a store, one must instead work as a clerk for the corporate giant, whose effect is indistinguishable from a soviet style controlled market in this way. Ironic, as it is unregulated free enterprise that allows such a thing to happen in the first place.
This is what happens when folks mistake Capitalism for a Free Market. Capitalism starts from a Free Market, but abuses it, destroying its freedom by allowing two classes to develop (Ruling/Owner/Lords and Disenfranchised/Worker/Serfs). This in turn creates a call for Socialism (to half-measure re-enfranchise the workers by collective ownership – they all become sleeping partners who have no actual power of ownership….owners in ‘name’ only).
For a Free Market to remain free is must be self-regulating by participants who recognise the dangers of allowing monopolies/power-elites to dominate the market (ok, the idea of monopolies that dominate the market is a tautology but it works for purposes of illustration and emphasis!) – we need to hold ourselves, and each other, back, by seeking neither to become a monopoly/part-of-an-oligarchy our self nor allowing others to do so by our actions.
Our intensive transport and communication network is a situation that allows monopolies to develop (anything that allows quick, bulk, transport really), and so should be high on our list to ‘undo’ if we wish to embrace a truly free market (and incidentally undo the high degree of instability found in transport intensive societies – Hypermobility). The problem with that of course is that our current level of wealth is based upon a non-free-market with a massive tax-supported transport infrastructure (albeit a complete BS level of wealth given the amount of national debt in the UK and US, the amount of “trade” based in ripping off the third world, and the amount of wealth generated by environmentally unsustainable practices…often to maintain socially and physiologically damaging social practices (low exercise, crap diet (high in processed food, low in nutrition), high waste generation (from packaging to energy generation), high ‘soma’ intake (TV Soap/quizzes/sport/etc))). |
