So I’ve been thinking about the greedflation issue, aka, companies raising prices way past inflation to pull in exorbitant monopolistic profits.
The simple solution here is this:
If companies truly are raising prices beyond inflationary costs, then there is a huge market opportunity to create a competitor, undercut at a fairer price, and STILL make profit.
The issue though, is that consumers, especially American consumers, are hyper loyal to brands, who actively seek to exploit them.
Examples:
- YouTube
- Amazon (mega monopoly tho, idk who else you could use except direct)
These examples are companies who it is very very difficult to make competitors for, because the user bases are very hard to sway to new platforms. (We still need competitors though, most don’t realize how much power places like YouTube have)
However, in places like manufacturing, operations, and distribution, these are places where new competitors could see instant success, because most consumers don’t care so much about how it got there, just that it got there, and it was cheaper.
Even with the above^ we still really need competitors within the major monopolies:
- Amazon
- Meta
- Disney
Major media monopolies create hyper biased media, which can become total propaganda.
Pharmaceutical monopolies drive medical prices
Investment monopolies like black rock and vanguard own basically everything, even your food.