Week 06 Response -- It ain't no game

From http://americanaffairsjournal.org

@nziske asked, "Do you think that if parts of the economy become monopolized that it will influence the government to slowly move into a totalitarian state?" in the post, @nziske/week-06-questions-monopoly-power

Many companies such as Disney and Amazon have a large and wide area of influence. Disney for example, has a heavy influence on entertainment, from tv shows to streaming services and movies. Likewise, Amazon has a great influence on the internet, shipping, and a great number of product markets. All that to say, big companies have a large influence on our (the common people) lives. Disney has some control over what type of media we watch and amazon has control over what brand of product we buy. However, there's competition, for every Disney, there's a Warner Bros, and for every Amazon, there's Google, there are companies fighting for that influence and status. So, what if, that competition was gone? Well, when that happens, one company can decide the form, delivery, and quality of that product, ONE company. This doesn't give the people option to choose from nor does it foster the sharing of ideas and mixed, diverse products and services. Imagine if Disney believed in a certain ideal, well if it had a monopoly on movies, then every American movie would have that underlying bias towards that ideal, and the consumers wouldn't have any other option but to watch those movies. Additionally, the wealth would be heavily unequally distributed. Soon people of that industry would be at the job hiring mercy of that company, and their options would be limited to one. Wealth is indeed power and economic control is full power, we talked about this last week when it comes to socialism and its dangers. One of those dangers is total control of the government and its people. The same could be said about monopolies, with their power. Money and economic relevancy are power and power brings control. When you are controlling an entire aspect of the economy itself, it is guaranteed to lead to totalitarianism.