Categories
Monopolization

What’s Left of Competition

I have on the one side anarchy, competition, and freedom, all synonyms, and on the other command, monopoly, and regulation. In general, the left wants freedom in private life (e.g., the liberation of women from their husbands) and regulation in public life (e.g., tax those sugary soft drinks). But when it comes to industrial organization, the left seems to take the opposite tack. There are fevered calls for competition (anarchy) in the public realm of the markets, but what appears to be opposition to competition in the private realm within the firm, as when a financier buys up Sears and tries to make the company’s corporate divisions compete against each other for resources.