When billionaires say 'pro free market' they can make it sound like they are on the side of the consumer, who will naturally think of free competition, product improvement and price reduction. But they don't mean free competition, because that needs tough regulation to stop monopolies forming. - ThreadSky

jowolff.bsky.social • 1 day ago

When billionaires say 'pro free market' they can make it sound like they are on the side of the consumer, who will naturally think of free competition, product improvement and price reduction. But they don't mean free competition, because that needs tough regulation to stop monopolies forming.

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nathanielgraham.bsky.social•1 day ago

But can’t regulation also act as a barrier to entry and entrench monopolies and privilege incumbents?

jowolff.bsky.social•1 day ago

Regulation can do all sorts of things, it's true, including favour large companies. Luckily there are different ways of regulating. And when those who run the biggest companies call for deregulation they are not trying to encourage new entrants to their sectors.

marshallcolman.bsky.social•1 day ago

Have there ever been any economies without regulation?

nathanielgraham.bsky.social•1 day ago

No and I’m certainly not calling for that

carlosamammal.bsky.social•1 day ago

Yep. It can also stop your kids from eating lead paint off their toys.

nathanielgraham.bsky.social•1 day ago

Indeed and should have made clear that I’m not one of these anti regulation libertarians but simply that one should be a bit wary when established businesses call for regulation. Often self serving

carlosamammal.bsky.social•1 day ago

OR, when they call for 'deregulatin'!

carlosamammal.bsky.social•1 day ago

EXACTLY.. 👍

crd37.bsky.social•1 day ago

I am a free marketeer
You are a protectionist
He is a rent-seeking profiteer

etc
etc

keirharper-thorpe.bsky.social•1 day ago

Yes, the UK probably witnessed the fastest creation of monopolies it had witnessed when utilities were sold off under governments supposedly big fans of a 'free market'. The country is still paying the price, notably in terms of water.

keirharper-thorpe.bsky.social•1 day ago

I accept my comment may be deemed ironic/hypocritical when I am a resident of Scotland which has a single, state-run water company.

marshallcolman.bsky.social•1 day ago

And rail companies as conduits for money to pass from the state to shareholders.

keirharper-thorpe.bsky.social•16 hours ago

Completely. What is also interesting is that at privatisation of all these services the public were promised that the move from stodgy state-run corporations would bring competition and with it better services and lower prices. Yet, quickly, let alone these decades on we see that was all illusory.

keirharper-thorpe.bsky.social•16 hours ago

We might assume that there are some decent companies out there, but they do not appear to be the ones who won out. Instead the companies who run so many services have proven to follow practice that would be seen as poor in any capitalist enterprise. Perhaps the (personal) greed was to be expected.

keirharper-thorpe.bsky.social•16 hours ago

Still, the level which it has risen, combined with the loading of debt from other sources on to companies, suggests that a particular breed of capitalism was really promoted by the selling off of such services. It is interesting to note how many of the companies are based abroad. I often noted that

keirharper-thorpe.bsky.social•16 hours ago

due to EDF (né Électricité de France), the French President had greater control over UK electricity prices than the British Prime Minister. I am not saying these overseas companies were any better than the UK ones they brought the businesses from, but again going back to the privatisation stage I

leetaylorbythesea.bsky.social•1 day ago

Thiel does not believe in competition

tft.io•1 day ago

thomas-sparrevohn.bsky.social•1 day ago

Well @jowolff.bsky.social there seems to be a contradiction in terms - with truly free markets (what ever that actually means - no market has ever been free) billionaires would not exist - they would have been out competed ❤️

laurtuck.bsky.social•1 day ago

Absolutely agree! It is natural for companies (not just those run by billionaires) to seek to be monopolies. It is the function of government to prevent this from happening.

johndaledalton.bsky.social•1 day ago

They are pro-free market, providing they are a monopoly seller.

stevebeing.me•1 day ago

Serfing U.S.A.

...by the Impeach Boys.

peterlamb1.bsky.social•1 day ago

As R.H. Tawney put it in his 1931 book Equality: "Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow".

carlosamammal.bsky.social•1 day ago

AND such things as intellectual property theft, rampant ecological degradation, international worker exploitation, dangerous and unfit for use product distribution etc etc etc.

petruscrinitus.bsky.social•1 day ago

'People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick, or in some contrivance to raise prices'.

nihil novi sub sole

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