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My sense, from my own area of work, as well as in reading the news and reading economics research, is that there isn't enough competition in the market, and there's too many monopolies. The problem as I see it, in the US at least, is that the solutions to these monopolies don't fall along the lines of the "government good versus government bad" rhetoric that tends to dominate partisan discussions. In some areas and in some ways we need less government, maybe a lot less, and in some areas and in someways we need more, maybe a lot more. In some areas, to my view, there needs to be a lot less regulation, such as in some aspects of healthcare research and service provision (e.g, licensing laws, lots of drug regulation). Sharply reducing intellectual property laws are another example (sharply reducing copyright duration, making patents much more difficult to obtain, reducing terms). In other areas there might be a need for more regulation, such as in pricing transparencies, maybe even in applying anti-monopoly laws to some hospital and insurance groups in some areas. Why aren't we in the US rolling out massive municipal ISP infrastructure, for example? This would solve multiple things at once. I could go on and on. Basically, I see monopolies everywhere. I feel like the government needs to take action to introduce massive amounts of competition into the economy, whether that be through public projects or deregulation, or both. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/01/craft-b...
https://slate.com/business/2018/01/a-new-theory-for-why-amer... |
However, over time, it appears that we rob the maintenance funds to service other governmental desires - sometimes it’s just what will get the dogcatcher re-elected. So, this virtual monopoly leads to undesirable outcomes.
I believe governmental mismanagement of resources is a valid argument against allowing new governmental virtual monopolies. (Examples include American outdated transportation infrastructure, the Flint Michigan water fiasco, governmental shutdowns in federal parks upon new budget constraints, and more).
A peculiarity that folks on the left and right fall into is that all is fine when “my guy” is in office, but fail to see the consequences of governmental ownership in worse times.
For private companies, at least, there is an advantage that investment (outside of monopolies, which I’m inclined to your perspective) should match demand.
Also just noticed the top item on HN right now is about how SpaceX can’t test their rocket because the government Is in fiscal limbo. I’d expect that should creates a new wave of people who are concerned about governmental mis-management. https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2018/0...