Declining worker power vs. rising monopoly power: explaining recent macro trends

Post by devalgo » Wed, Jun 03, 2020, 8:11 PM UTC

dcolkitt wrote: post #215

jakozaur wrote: post #45

In almost all USA industries, there is increasing amount of consolidation. The top 4 companies' in almost any industry has a larger share of the total market: https://www.economist.com/briefing/2016/03/26/too-much-of-a-... Some consolidation is natural, but a huge part is caused by mergers and acquisitions (M&A) fulled by Private Equity. The M&A benefits the shareholders of participating companies at the expense of c…

Monopolization almost certainly is occurring. The left usually cites weak antitrust enforcement. The right usually cites regulatory barriers that make it expensive to compete without economies of scale. I actually think both sides are at least partially correct. However what almost everyone overlooks is the demographic transition. The US, along with every other developed economy, is significantly older today than it…

Post by B4CKlash » Wed, Jun 03, 2020, 8:13 PM UTC

tathougies wrote: post #251

Dumblydorr wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your point mirrors Scott Galloway's and Warren Buffet's philosophies. Why is sweat, regular labor, taxed much more than capital gains? Why do CEOs who are fantastically rich need lower taxation rates than the 100s of laborers their lifestyle relies upon? We tax sweat, we let riches run free.

Capital gains -- gains from dividends or retained earnings -- are taxed at the corporate tax level before being distributed. I don't think we should retax them at all. I think dividends should be untaxed, and so should the retained earnings portion when selling a stock, but all capital gains attributed purely to increase in speculative valuation can be taxed more, sure. Just a small nitpick.

Post by chrischen » Wed, Jun 03, 2020, 8:14 PM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #312

Apocryphon wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government directed Facebook to suppress Snap? https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/04/snap-ceo-isnt-expecting-mu...

Think about your local ISP. They usually have a local monopoly because they use the government to make competition illegal.

Post by s1artibartfast » Wed, Jun 03, 2020, 8:16 PM UTC

imtringued wrote: post #263

milesvp wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger problem with estate taxes (and btw estate taxes often imply death taxes in US law) that you may not see is how they effect smaller players. One of the things fueling corporate consolidation is asset liquidation upon death. If I start and own a small company that’s worth $10million, when I die, there is likely a strong desire to liquidate that company in order to allow for some inheritance to multiple peopl…

Why not just split the estate? A single person should not inherit more than 50% of the value of the estate.

Post by devalgo » Wed, Jun 03, 2020, 8:19 PM UTC

Aunche wrote: post #274

jtr1 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an argument a lot of non-authoritarian socialists make: democracy only governs the few hours when people are not sleeping or at work, so a deeper, fuller democracy would include running workplaces democratically as well. Whether by employee-elected boards, cooperatives, democratically run unions (a necessary distinction), or some other form of collective control, that the consent of the governed is a question…

Democracy is not an efficient way of running a business. Look at the multi-trillion dollar deficit as an example. Workers are incentivized to choose themselves over the health of the company or the customer. Also, people overwhelmingly would rather exchange their stake in the company for the equivalent value in cash. It's only when the company's valuation skyrockets when they retroactively declare this to be unfair.