Here, in America, we live in a capitalistic age in which the most powerful mega corporations that the world has ever known are somehow permitted to do pretty much whatever that it is, that they so desire, and while it is true that from time-to-time some of these corporations have been sanctioned with monetary fines in the billions of dollars, it needs to be understood that when corporations are making multi-billion dollars in profits yearly, that paying back a fraction of that to the government, is simply looked upon as the cost of doing business, and in absence of antitrust or other effective guardrails being put into place, it’s pretty much full speed ahead for these behemoth corporations.
We like to believe that capitalism and competition go together, and by virtue of a market in which there is healthy competition, this is beneficial not only for the state but also for the people. The problem, though, is that many businesses don’t actually care for competition, because it impacts not only their bottom line but also makes them vulnerable to losing their position; whereas their preference is to always increase revenues and profit, signifying that competitors are often seen as something that needs to be dealt with in a constructive way, and one of those ways is to buy them out.
When it comes to buying out one’s competitor, it needs to be understood that a significant number of competitors aren’t interested in being bought out, because they are quite satisfied with the business that they are doing, and appreciate being in the driver’s seat of making decisions. That said, businesses have to answer to capital, and especially need to answer to their venture capital and stockholder investors, and when those investors are of the mind that they want the lucre from being bought out, then many companies will somewhat reluctantly permit themselves to be bought out, which quite obviously means less competition for the buyer of such.
Then there are those companies, that because perhaps there are so few players to begin with such as we see in the airline industry, as well as certain sectors of the defense industry, and so on, understand well that the optics of being bought out just aren’t going to work, and where there is plenty of business pretty much for everyone, there is structured a deal, understood between the parties, but not formally agreed to that essentially aligns the interests of these businesses that makes for a smoother revenue and profit line without impacting business concerns, because they are, in essence, colluding with one another to get what they want by deliberating not undercutting one another and so forth.
Finally, when there is a competitor that simply will not be bought out, and will not align with the mega-corporations’ desires, then the nuclear option is to deliberately undercut that competitor through the pricing of the products so being sold, in which a mega-corporate conglomerate can readily run a particular sector of their business at a purposeful loss, whenever the gameplan is to do so, to drive the competitor out of business or severely damage such, with the understanding that in the future, prices will rise to recover this scorched earth tactic.
In all of these things, we find that the governance of this nation, seems to take a laissez-faire position, not really because it has no vested interest in the outcome, but often because those in governance that could do something actionable about such, are themselves either captured by industry or are from that industry and hence performing their duties not from the people’s perspective but instead in homage to that industry for their own personal aggrandizement.