From: Ferren MacIntyre (Ferren.MacIntyre at domain nuigalway.ie)
Date: Wed 17 Oct 2001 - 16:07:26 IST
There's another aspect to monopoly/oligopoly that seems to have escaped
attention. This is that Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' -- the one aspect of
capitalism that most of us can agree is useful, because it guarantees that
sooner or later the market provides what people want at the best possible
price -- depends entirely upon multiple decision makers. As soon as the
number of suppliers of a product drops to a value at which they can
mutually connive, the invisible hand is lopped off at the neck and, whether
there is legally provable misbehavior or not, the market is no longer ideal.
There are situations in which a single decision-maker is a social asset.
The appropriate structure is then a cooperative -- Calavo, Sunkist, REI,
Harvard Coop -- to name a few that have survived handily in the corporate
jungle. (Capitalism and Socialism both recognized Cooperation as a threat:
it's destruction was probably the only thing they ever agreed on. That's
what happens when you go around saying, 'To whom does the profit belong?
Not to the capitalists, who do nothing but provide money; not to the
workers, who are well paid; but to the consumers, who create it by paying
too much' (a paraphrase of Warbasse, president of the British Coops, in
_Cooperative Democracy_, back in 1936 when the Coop Movement looked about
to become a serious player among economic systems).
There is no reason why a computer program should cost more than a book.
--Ferren
The love of money is the root of all evil. Diogenes
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Dr Ferren MacIntyre | The Mews, Carnacrow
MRI, Nat. Uni. Ireland | HEADFORD, Co. Galway
Galway, Ireland | Ireland
+353 91 52 4411 x3202 | +353 93 35 0 27
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