Oligopoly: A state of limited competition, in which a market is shared and/or controlled by a small number of producers or sellers.
Oligarchy: 1. A small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution. 2. A state governed by such a group. 3. a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people. More -
Dylan Ratigan keeps using the phrase "Corporate Communism" on his television show. He claims it is an especially fitting term when discussing the current economic landscape, particularly in our banking and health care systems.
As Americans, he explains, we reject communism because it historically has allowed a tiny group of people to consolidate complete control over national resources (including people), in the process stifling competition, freedom and choice. It leaves its citizens stagnating under perpetually broken systems with no natural motivation to innovate, improve services or reduce costs. Lack of choice; lazy, unresponsive customer service; a culture of exploitation and a small powerbase formed by cronyism and nepotism -- these are the hallmarks of a communist system that steals from its citizenry. It also provides a major reason why America spent half a century fighting a Cold War with the U.S.S.R.
And yet increasingly today we find the people of our country in two opposed categories not all that different from what was seen in Soviet Russia:
* those who are forced to compete tooth and nail each day to provide value to society in return for income for themselves and their families,
* those who would instead use the lawmaking apparatus of their country to help themselves to the people's tax money and/or to protect themselves from competition.
Ratigan then observes that if you allow weak, outdated players to take control of the government and change the rules so that they are protected from the natural competition and reward systems that have created so many innovations in our country, you not only steal from the citizens on behalf of the least worthy among us, but you also doom them, by trapping the trillions of dollars in capital that could otherwise have been used to generate new innovation and jobs.
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