In his May 29 column for The Baltimore Sun entitled “Markets are less competitive than you think”, UMBC political science professor Tom Schaller answered critics of his previous column, which pondered as to why so many tolerate the inefficiencies of market-oriented entities as compared to governmental ones.
Tackling in particular the assertion that consumers have the choice of taking their business elsewhere in the private sector in contrast to dealing with the supposed monopoly of governments, Schaller noted that things are not so simple when taking into account the forms of competition within government at the state and local levels. He also wrote of the various “oligopolies” within the IT, banking, airline, and entertainment/media industries, and closed with a challenge:
“Should they wish to practice what they preach about the magical powers of pluralistic market competition, here’s a challenge: Go a month — heck, go a week — without shopping at a big-box retailer, eating at a national restaurant chain, flying on a major commercial airline, or watching or listening to any movie, cable network program, radio station, magazine or newspaper owned by Disney, Viacom or Time-Warner.”
Tags: CAHSS, PoliticalScience
