Happy Sparkles and Coffee
I was about to post something very similar. xD I agree...Lunaire
Also, for Luxottica (saw you forgot to add that in) --- the eye-glasses company. I'm pretty sure there is Costco, Walmart, Solstice, Zenni Optical and Warby Parker (just to name a few). You are still able to obtain eyeglasses and sunglasses through other companies. So not a true monopoly.
Who the crapping hell are Simmons? And I highly doubt that the UK has a monopoly problem, since we've been brought into this. Why, is beyond me, given that this is a US politics discussion thread. In fact, they've made some rather idiotic decisions, in my opinion, in an attempt to prevent that. And it's prevented by EU law - for the moment, anyway.
The EU blocked a merger between two mobile phone companies - O2 and Three - most recently. The reasoning behind this was that this would have left the UK with three major phone operators, reducing consumer choice and raising prices. Shame really. This could have solved some of the problems that we have with mobile phone coverage here. Or perhaps its just that I would have benefitted, given that I'm on O2 at the moment.
Thatcher, probably the most loved or hated politician here, blocked British Telecom from replacing the copper infrastructure with fibre. Not only was fibre cheaper than copper, but it has obvious benefits. It was blocked by Thatcher due to the fact that it was anti-competetive and monopolizing. Had the fibre rollout taken place, we may not have the problem we have today where rural areas sometimes are unable to get a broadband connection, and are reliant on dial-up for there internet. Something which is not really compatible with todays Web 2.0/Web 3.0/Call it what you want internet (it will just take an agonizingly long time to load.)
Seriously though, you could name any popular company and argue they have a monopoly. You could say that McDonalds has a monopoly over the food industry, but I still see people flocking to KFC for lunch. Or Dominos has a monopoly over Pizza Devilery, but the local Dial-a-Pizza still gets quite a lot of business. Or Costa over coffee shops, yet there is still a number of local, independent coffee shops here that a suceeding. Popularity does not a monopoly make.
I'M GONNA FIGHT 'EM ALL
A SEVEN NATION ARMY COULDN'T HOLD ME BACK.......
Happy Sparkles and Coffee
That is the point @Lunaire and I have been making!!! It's not a monopoly just because they are popular. And the examples that were given weren't all US based companies and weren't examples of American Monopoly. If another word was used to describe what they are doing -- it would take a different content and meaning.
Yeah it might not have been best to quote @Lunaire. My apologies to him, I did understand the point hewas making and agree with him.
Just don't understand why the UK has been brought into this at all. Especially when we've not only got the UK gov protecting against a monopoly, but the EU gov also protecting against one.
Ironically here, the smaller companies can survieve because they are cheaper than the larger ones. The larger ones realize that people will pay more for familiarity and the brand name. The smaller companies charge less.
Dominos charges over ?15 for a pizza. I can get it for ?10 from the local one. I often go there as a result.
Costa will easily set me back ?3.50 for a small cup of that crap they call coffee. The more local places will cost me ?2, sometimes less. And taste nicer. I'll choose the local over the Costa shit.
The five major mobile companies cost more to use. I know I'd get my phone contract cheaper from a less well known, smaller comapny such as GiffGaff rather than have to do everything over the internet, which even uses the same phone masts as O2 so I really wouldn't loose anything, but it was more convinient for me to go somewhere where theres a store.
The big banks offer Help-to-buy savings accounts (a tax-free bank account here you put money into to help buy your first home, and you get a bonus on it when you withfraw it all to buy a house). The smaller, more local building society offers a higher interest rate than a big bank such as HSBC, which is why I'm going with them. Makes it more inconvinient because there isn't really a branch nearby and it only takes Cheque or BACs - not monthly Direct Debit, but I get more from them.
I'M GONNA FIGHT 'EM ALL
A SEVEN NATION ARMY COULDN'T HOLD ME BACK.......
@Lunaire There are so many things wrong with what you said, I don't know where to start. You are using a definition of monopoly that is so narrow that nothing can ever be a monopoly. You are also miss the point, everything in economies is built on competition and consumer power if you take both away it collapses like a house of cards.
When a corporation gets so large and in control of so much of the market that it no longer bothers with competing, you no longer have a competitive free market. Also, one corporation can be in many different markets, just because the corporation has competition in one doesn't mean it has it in another.
YKK has a monopoly on the manufacture of zippers worldwide (including the USA), there is a good chance most zippers you own came from this corporation. As for the examples you cited, Arconic and Rio Tinto Alcan are both aluminum producers nothing to do with zippers, Talon International is the only one you got right, but with YKK in control of more than 90% of the market, Talon is next to useless as a competitor.
As for Microsoft, it has a monopoly in PC where it owns 90% of the market. If you go into a computer store, you would see it. And yes Apple has came about, but to say Microsoft and Apple are competitors is not true. Microsoft bankrupted Apple in the 1990s, but came to its rescue as it didn't want to be labelled an official monopoly and have to deal with antitrust issues. To this day, engineers from both companies work together and help each other. If you think there is competition between the two, you fell victim to the marketing.
As for Simmons, I was talking about the US pet food corporation which owns the pet food market.
As for Monsanto, its monopoly is in corn, 80% of the corn planted in the USA uses Monsanto's seeds. And it is illegal for framers to use seeds from their crops if they used Monsanto's seeds.
I could go on, but I cannot be bothered argue over definitions and let the main issue get lost. You can keep arguing over minor details that doesn't really matter, but I'm not engaging in that anymore.
Happy Sparkles and Coffee
Yeah, we have several things similar that happen here.
I also think the word monopoly is overused in media causing confusion to some people.
I'm not playing semantics on the words nor am I an economic major. But if you label something so incorrectly, it changes the meaning of the content, that needs to be clarified. In this case, for me, the convo about banks is mute or an underline disagreement as I don't think they are 'true' monopoly's (which is why I was debating them). If you don't mean monopoly, I'm not sure what you mean.. it would change the whole meaning of the posts (for me) and I'm unsure what that meaning would be. Which I think is why I (and I wont speak for @Lunaire ) questioned it. For me, that's where the miscommunication is coming from. And why I've as well been trying to gain clarification!
I think this thread needs something light-hearted to laugh at... Enter Sean Spicer...
You're welcome
There would still be more than one company. One of them, Lehman Brothers, did fail in the Recession. There are plenty of others. A lot of the big banks took advantage of the downturn and gobbled up smaller banks' assets. My dad's mortgages were moved from Countrywide to Bank of America. The former failed and Bank of America took them. I had major issues with this bank - they didn't even seem to know what to do about my situation! I took over my dad's mortgages and they could refinance the mortgages right. Fortunately, the second one is paid off now (who in the world pays off a mortgage at age 41? That doesn't happen very often!) I threatened foreclosure twice and they still couldn't help me.
Actually, it was halted, but there should have been restoration. We threw money at the problem (actually the People LENT it and should have been paid back. We weren't - that is the big issue).
I haven't eaten Domino's Pizza in over 10 years. I have boycott of them because they would not hire my brother who was desperate for a job after my dad died in 2007.
A local pizza chain hired him as an assistant manager and he was promoted to store manager within two months! That chain helped him get on his feet and he thanked them for that when he left. I had never seen my brother so grateful for the opportunity.
Wow... just wow...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...placement-plan
"Because the ACA required insurers to offer a set of benefits, the new rule would also allow insurance companies to offer less valuable plans, meaning that out-of-pocket costs would increase, and subsidies could go down. The rule would also lower requirements for the number of some types of doctors insurers are required to have in plans."
Trump's new rule, giving insurance companies new ways to screw over people.
Fox News is now turning against Trump
He really tore into them, didn't he? lol
Other than the fake National Guard immigration roundup story, it's been pretty quiet as of late.
His rally was pretty cool. He brought a guy up from the audience to speak at the Presidential podium.
Shepard Smith? It's not a surprise. He's probably the most liberal voice they have.Fox News is now turning against Trump
Fox & Friends has been known to be honest, too. President Trump watches that show, so he gets the information.
He wants fair coverage, not off-the-wall slanderous stuff.
Nope, he was a complete idiot and a spoiled brat.
