I’ve sometimes referred to the telecom industry as “communist.” After all, if the AT&T and T-Mobile merge is approved, that bigger version of AT&T would have 80% of the wireless market. That means one player would dominate an industry. If you don’t like the phone service you’re getting, don’t have a phone. Communism, whether the Soviet or the Capitalist version, stifles innovation and causes customer service to stagnate. It also forces consumers to pay artificially high bills because there is no competition. Dylan Ratigan has picked up on this comparison too:
Lately I have been using the phrase “Corporate Communism” on my television show. I think it is an especially fitting term when discussing the current landscape in both our banking and health care systems.
As Americans, I believe 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 the perpetual broken systems with no natural motivation to innovate, improve services or reduce costs.
Ergo, we need to stamp out communism everywhere we find it, even when it exists in a capitalist system like the United States.
More from Dylan Ratigan on “corporate communism”:
http://www.dylanratigan.com/2011/08/23/the-cost-of-corporate-communism/