The Hidden History of Monopolies : How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hartmann, Thom.

Series:

The Thom Hartmann Hidden History

The Thom Hartmann Hidden History ; v.4

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mass media--Economic aspects--United States.

Antitrust law--United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (193 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

hidden history of monopolies

Place of Publication:

Oakland : Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Incorporated, 2020.

Summary:

"This is the most important, dynamic book on the cancers of monopoly by giant corporations written in our generation."--from the foreword by Ralph NaderAmerican monopolies dominate, control, and consume most of the energy of our entire economic system; they function the same as cancer does in a body, and, like cancer, they weaken our systems while threatening to crash the entire body economic. American monopolies have also seized massive political power and use it to maintain their obscene profits and CEO salaries while crushing small competitors.But Thom Hartmann, America's #1 progressive radio host, shows we've broken the control of behemoths like these before, and we can do it again.Hartmann takes us from the birth of America as a revolt against monopoly (remember the Boston Tea Party?), to the largely successful efforts of both Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt and other like-minded leaders to restrain corporations' monopolistic urges, to the massive changes in the rules of business starting during the "Reagan Revolution" that have brought us to the cancer stage of capitalism.He shows the damage monopolies have done to so many industries: agriculture, healthcare, the media, and more. Individuals have taken a hit as well: the average American family pays a 5,000 a year "monopoly tax" in the form of higher prices for everything from pharmaceuticals to airfare to household goods and food. But Hartmann also describes commonsense, historically rooted measures we can take--such as revitalizing antitrust regulation, taxing great wealth, and getting money out of politics--to pry control of our country from the tentacles of the monopolists.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Foreword

Introduction: Cancer and Monopoly

Monopoly Kills: Competition, Creativity, and Americans

Part One: America Was Founded on Resistance to Monopoly

Birthed in the Fight Against Monopoly

The Founders Challenge Monopoly

Madison's Vision: Government to Fight Factions

The Founders on Patents and Copyrights

The Monopolists Rise Up

Progressives Fight Back

Part Two: Conservatives and Modern Monopolies vs. the Middle Class

Monopoly in the 20th Century: Roosevelt Warns of Concentrated Wealth and Fascism

Monopoly and Fascism in America Today

Where Did America's Middle Class Come From?

Where Did America's Middle Class Go?

How Reaganomics Killed the Jetsons

Reaganomics Ensured American Leisure for the Few, Not the Many

More Unequal than Rome

How the Monopolists Stole the US Government

Government as a Monopoly?

Commons vs. Private

Libertarians Object

The New Feudalism

From Route 66 to Anytown, USA

The Borking of America

The Fortunes Bork Made

Monopoly Is Anti-business

Part Three: Living Monopoly Today and in Praise of Inefficiency

Monopoly in Milk: The End of a Family Dairy Farm

Big Ag Mergers

Monopoly in Pharma: Big Private Profits from Publicly Granted Patents

Just Three Companies

Hospital Consolidation Kills

Monopoly in Media: How Big Money Controls the Stories We Tell

The Early Days of Fox: Losing Money to Gain Political Power

Unbundling Cable, Phones, and TV

Turning Financial Power into Political Power

The Racial Wealth Monopoly

Monopolies over Labor

Cheap Labor, and Getting Cheaper

Less for Labor Means More for CEOs

Solution: Democracy's Immune System

Solution: Replace the "Consumer Welfare" Framework

Solution: Break Up the Internet Giants.

Solution: Bring Back the Corporate Death Penalty

Solution: Ban Preemption Laws Written by Corporations

The Core Solution: Competition

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

About the Author.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781523087747

1523087749

OCLC:

1164490743