Anti monopoly protects a free society

I used to conduct research experiments on farm plots. Most ag researchers probably plant seed modified to resist a pesticide (the pesticide) to keep plots weed-free. I sometimes asked the guys helping to spray our plots what they thought about the company (the company) that owns the intellectual property (IP); manufactures; and sells the chemical and seed. The question switched off their usual jokiness, and they got really uneasy and quiet, shrugging and saying its not great. If you read about the company, you can understand why the got really silent. The company has infamously sued farmers for stealing IP-protected seed, aka: neighbor’s pollen (protected) blows onto farmers’ seed; or farmer saves the seed for next season. Besides this, the company also funds many researchers; university and farm conferences; and kids’ farm organizations. When a company possesses so much power, they can make people do what they want, even if they don’t like it: make them plant the company’s seed, spray the company’s pesticide, submit to all kinds of data collection; conduct and publish their research, provide academic and legal cover, lobby governments to grant them immunity from lawsuits from people sickened by their products.¹

These days, I look around and see this type of power in every industry that puts the boot on peoples’ necks. The big 4 meatpacking companies make farmers go deep into debt to construct production facilities for the company.² And because they now hold farmers’ keys out of debt they can cut payment;³ increase prices to buyers; or misrepresent the country of origin of meat.⁴ The biggest grocery retailer forces suppliers to lower prices and then increase prices to competitor retailers and their customers. The big 3 memory manufacturers and graphics card manufacturer control the parts for modern computing; and cut supply and raise prices to researchers and consumers.⁵ The big insurance companies own the company approving and denying claims (and often, the hospital, pharmacy, and pharmacy benefit manager) so abuse their conflict of interest to deny your claim.⁶ On the worker side, these companies often employ the most people in town, and so, reduce pay and benefits without fear of discipline; or bust unions.⁷

Across the economy, from airlines to internet service to hospitals to gambling to agriculture, a handful of individuals exercise outsize power over peoples’ lives.⁸ And people suffer the consequences: whether from breathing or drinking more polluted air or water, to spending more time on automated call service to chase down answers to denied claims, to paying more, to toiling more for lower pay, to losing freedom and control over their lives.

I’d agree strongly with many others who advocate for and have enforced the laws preventing crimes that gives rise to such power. Protecting against unfair, deceptive, or unjustly discriminatory acts, forces companies to compete on the merits and honestly, instead of by cheating to become dominant. And the Constitution and Congress wrote laws that allow citizens and agencies to enforce these laws.

Agencies, for example, can identify and ban practices, like junk fees and noncompetes, that fall into these categories through rulemaking and enforcement authorities^{9 10}. Congress, private plaintiffs, and agencies can utilize breakups to separate companies that own an adjacent business and can exploit a conflict of interest, like the seed company that owns the intellectual property and seed dealerships; or the insurance company that owns the company that denies or approves treatment. Faithfully enforcing existing laws, that prohibit acts that may lessen competition or may substantially create a monopoly, should heavily discourage executives from proposing an illegal merger in the boardroom; or directing the company to engage in forms of price discrimination or exclusive dealing.¹⁰ Legislatures can enact public utility obligations for some companies, as they did with railroads, to serve all customers equally and reasonably, including by offering fair use licensing of intellectual property. Government ownership, like a military commissary or veterans administration or postal service, can ensure a basic level of service for all people; and act as a spur to force companies to compete harder on the merits.

Above, I have outlined some of the tools to protect fair competition on the merits. I should say, by protect fair competition on the merits, I mean protecting a fair mode of competition. Fair competition modes differs from unfair modes. Unfair modes include burning down competitors’ facilities or bribing competitors. As courts have affirmed, fair and meritorious forms of competition include those like developing better products or offering better benefits to attract workers and customers.¹¹ What purpose though animates robust enforcement of the laws protecting free and fair markets? In the next few posts, I’d like to descibe how the of anti-monopoly focuses around dispersing power away from centralized power; to people broadly, so that people can live and work in freedom and dignity.