Breaking Monopolies: Anti-Monopoly Framework
Monopolies are toxic features of capitalism that destroy the market competition capitalists claim to value. They are extraction mechanisms that eliminate alternatives and capture regulatory power.
Why Monopolies Are Toxic
Monopolies eliminate competition that supposedly drives efficiency. They extract monopoly rents without providing value. They capture regulators who are supposed to constrain them. They destroy small and medium businesses through predatory pricing followed by price gouging. They reduce worker bargaining power through monopsony labor markets. They stifle innovation by buying or burying competitors. They concentrate political power by funding campaigns, lobbying, and operating revolving doors.
Progressive Corporate Taxation as Anti-Monopoly Tool
Tax rates increase with size to make infinite scaling less profitable. A local bakery pays 15% on profits. Amazon pays 42%. This makes small and medium business competitive. It discourages the “get big or die” venture capital growth model. It reduces incentive to acquire competitors. It supports regional economic diversity. It keeps profits local instead of extracting to distant shareholders.
Active Anti-Trust Enforcement
We break up existing monopolies including Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. We prohibit acquisitions by dominant firms. We impose vertical integration limits so companies can’t own the entire supply chain plus retail plus delivery. We establish sector-specific concentration limits. We conduct retrospective merger review to undo bad past approvals.
Market Structure Rules
When a company reaches 33% market share, it triggers a monopoly tax surcharge. At 40% market share, mandatory divestiture begins. Platform companies can’t compete on their own platforms, so Amazon can’t sell Amazon Basics on the Amazon marketplace. We require interoperability including data portability and API access. We ban non-compete agreements that reduce worker mobility.
Public Alternatives
We create a public option in every sector where monopolies form. Public broadband competes with telecom monopolies. Public generic drug manufacturing competes with pharma. Public banking competes with the financial sector. This creates market discipline without relying on anti-trust litigation.
Support Cooperative Competition
We provide preferential government contracts where cooperatives get first opportunity to bid and automatic award if they offer competitive price and quality. This creates viable competition to monopolies without relying on anti-trust litigation. With $600 billion or more in annual federal contracts redirected from monopolies to worker ownership, we build alternative economic structures. We offer cooperative business loans at lower rates. We provide legal and technical support for cooperative formation. We exempt cooperatives from some size-based regulations because they’re worker-owned with different incentives.
How Monopolies Extract from Workers
Amazon warehouse workers can’t negotiate wages because Amazon is the only major employer in the region. Injured workers are fired and replaced because there’s no alternative employment. Punishing productivity quotas persist because there’s no competitor to switch to. Amazon extracts wealth from communities and returns nothing.
Hospital monopolies mean nurses can’t negotiate because one health system owns all hospitals in the area. Patients can’t choose because there are no alternative providers. Prices run three to four times higher than competitive markets. Profits extract to distant private equity rather than reinvesting locally.
The Walmart effect destroys local retail through predatory pricing. Once competitors are gone, Walmart raises prices and cuts worker hours. The entire downtown dies and the tax base collapses. Community wealth extracts to Bentonville shareholders.
Tech platform monopolies force developers to pay Apple or Google 30% to sell software. Small businesses can’t reach customers without Amazon or Google ads. Creators can’t reach audiences without YouTube or Meta algorithms. All extract rents while providing decreasing value.
Agriculture monopolies see four companies controlling 85% of beef processing. Ranchers are forced to accept whatever price is offered because there are no alternative buyers within hundreds of miles. Processors extract maximum value while ranchers go bankrupt.
The Pattern
Monopoly eliminates alternatives. Workers and producers lose bargaining power. Consumers lose choice. Monopoly extracts maximum rent. Community wealth flows to distant shareholders. Local economy hollows out. Political power concentrates as monopoly funds campaigns and captures regulators.
The Democratic Socialist Alternative
We break monopolies through progressive taxation that penalizes scale. We enforce active anti-trust that prevents consolidation. We create public alternatives that provide real competition. We support worker cooperatives that operate at human scale. We rebuild local economies instead of allowing extraction to distant shareholders.