Per Bylund, the other professor of the current Entrepreneurial Value and Creation in Society course spoke to the free enterprise society about monopoly power. The first thing that stuck out to me was his definition of monopoly (and the official meaning). He takes the literal meaning of monopoly, meaning only 1 company/corporation/owner in an industry. I, on the other hand, had always focused less on the number of companies and rather the power they hold. So while Walmart in the technical sense may not be a monopoly, due to the companies such as target or Safeway, I would still consider Walmart a monopoly due to spending millions on lobbying.
Professor Bylund also mentions that a monopoly can be a good thing, he explains that if a company is truly the best and runs others out of business that, in turn, we have the best products available to us. While this is true we see that in general having only 1 option is not a good idea. Mentioned in a lecture by Benjamin Powell who showed that in countries such as Cuba, citizens only have access to one option and while the economies are different, the consumer typically wants the ability to choose. So I find that while a product may be the best, a consumer may not agree with the prices of ethics the company provides. Our ability to choose in our current market is also very deceptive. When going to the grocery store we see many options, yet most people fail to realize the majority of products are owned by the same few parent companies. So while many people may want to support a company that is organic, that company is most likely owned by one of the 7 parent companies who are simultaneously pushing to keep unsafe products in our food through various legislation and the slowing of FDA regulations.
This leads to what I believe should have been a larger topic of discussion for Professor Bylund's seminar. That while he spoke on direct power and control over the consumer he didn't speak as much on the political side of a companies involvement. It is also where my view of monopolies comes to play. When thinking of monopolies rather than how many companies there are, how involved they are in lobbying, political campaigns, and other various legislation shows the true power they hold over American citizens. Even when it comes to today's elections, a president gains a majority of their campaign funding from corporations. The point being, where and how a company spends its money is more important than the direct power over consumers. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most lucrative among lobbying groups. Most people agree that medication is a necessity and that there can be many difficulties in getting affordable medication. This is due to lobbying within our country, with industries spending millions of dollars to stop progressive legislation to be passed, which is the indirect route of companies controlling the consumer.
