And the big TV networks and the big cable companies won't tell you what's really up with AT&T becoming more and more of a monopoly because they're all playing the same game themselves.
But it's not just telecom and media companies that are growing into virtual monopolies. Right now, there are 10 giant corporations that control, either directly or indirectly, virtually every consumer product we buy.
Kraft, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle, Proctor and Gamble, General Mills, Kellogg's, Mars, Unilever, and Johnson and Johnson together have a stranglehold on the American consumer.
Meanwhile, in the retail industry, Wal-Mart and Target, along with big box stores The Home Depot and Best Buy, control major portions of America's retail industry.
You can basically pick any industry in America, and see the monopolistic characteristics in it.
That's why we should pass a law -- a new version of the Sherman Act -- that says, explicitly, that whenever a company reaches a point where they have more than a certain percentage of a marketplace -- say, 10 or 15 percent -- then they can't grow any larger in that domain.
They have to leave room for startups, innovators, and competitors.
There was a time in America when nearly every business in every Main Street or strip mall was locally owned by local families.
They paid well, they took care of their employees, and they had great customer service. The anti-trust laws kept the big boys at bay for over a century.
There was even a TV show that ran from 1960 until 1964 titled Route 66, in which Martin Milner and George Maharis visited town after town on their way from coast to coast.
Every town was different, every restaurant and hotel unique, and those differences from place to place provided an unending series of interesting plots for the TV series.
America worked back then because we enforced the anti-trust laws. It's time to start again, and even expand them and add some teeth to them. No more "too big to fail" banks or anything else.
Let's get back to core American values and rebuild the nation's small business sector.
Only then will we see innovation and competition return to America.
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