Should the Government of the United States break up big corporations and monopolies?

Question

Why? Name one that they should break up?

Answer 1

I have always maintained that the larger any government, organization or corporation gets, the less manageable it becomes and fewer people benefit from it.
Big companies ARE monopolies, because they strangle competition, and all-too-often put independent stores out of business. WalMart is the most flagrant example: it comes into a town, demands tax abatements from the municipal government, and virtually puts all the local stores out of business. Meanwhile, it uses slave labor in China and pays its American employees little more than minimum wage.
Kroger just took over another chain of supermarkets in my hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana. They now 'own' the market and will be able to gouge customers as they please. They even 'leased' stores they closed for two years to ensure that new competitors can't enter the market. That's wrong, immoral and unfair. Customers are now at the mercy of Kroger, and will be forced to pay higher prices because of it.
Competition is healthy for local economies. When big corporations eliminate all but minimal competition, communities and consumers suffer.
"Big" is not necessarily better. If you can live with paying a little less at a store that is ruthless when it comes to their employees and/or the communities they serve, I guess it's up to you and your conscience. In the long run, you'll pay more because the big chain stores will lure you in with loss-leader prices on a few items, then gouge you on the other purchases you make; and - all the time - you'll get less customer service, less personal attention, and a deteriorating local economy because WalMart sends most of its profits back to Bentonville instead of re-distributing it in your home town. WalMart and Kroger, for example, don't even join the local Chambers of Commerce, and participate very little in local community events. In the long run, that ends up costing you and your neighbors more. -RKO- 10/14/07

Answer 2

Monopolies, yes. Big companies, absolutely not. I personally can't think of any monopoly that is out there that should be broken up, other than maybe the UAW or some similar union that holds a monopoly on labor in various industries.

Answer 3

Name one? WalMart. Exxon/Mobile. etc.

In the United States, we don't generally have "monopolies" in the classic sense; rather we have a number of industries that are dominated by a handful of firms.

Sometimes this makes sense--imagine the chaos if 20 different companies were stringing their ownpower lines to provide electricity in a city!. In situations like that , it makes sense to have a single provider--but those industries in return surrender some of their autonomy to government regulators so that their activities (and prices) are monitored.

Some industries HAVE to have large companies to be cost efficient--though in most cases the corporations are larger than they need to be for this purpose. Railroads are a good example-which were the first "big businesses" for exactly that reason.

But in many other areas--energy (oil), pharmaceuticals, HMO's, retail. . . the dominant corportations have ceased to be competatiors in a free market--instead they are virtual monopolies who manipulate the market--and public policy and law--purely for their own profit. And yes--that power needs to be curtailed, either y mandated divesture (breaking them up), or by stripping them of the legal privileges tha tenable them to stifle competition.

Answer 4

No on big corporations. There are no monopolies in the US. Most corporations are multi-national. What happens when another country wants a corporation to stay intact?

Answer 5

Big companies - no; Monopolies - yes. Monopolies usually hurt consumers, big companies don't necessarily and often help consumers thru their buying power/low prices (Walmart, etc)

Answer 6

It's too late. They already own the government.