Wednesday, March 5, 2014

What ever happened to telling the truth and talking about something that really matters?

Oh goodness, the election cycle is approaching. I strongly dislike the political ads and the half truths told by ALL parties. What ever happened to telling the truth and talking about something that really matters? What happened to common sense?

I was born and reared in a small rural county in North Carolina. I went away to college and lived away for a number of years. I now live and work in my hometown. I look around and I see my hometown as well as other small towns drying up, stores closing, many people unemployed, or under employed for years. The population at large is poorer than when I was a child in the 1970's. This is the world I see daily in small towns through out America.

The stock market has made back all the ground it lost. It has even set new records. Life seems to be good for a certain set. Yet, the masses are continuing to get poorer by the day. It did not happen over night, policies were changed in the early 1980's that started this ball rolling. We have all been fed sound bits to tell us these things were good yet they have eventually destroyed our very way of life in America. Small to medium size companies have closed and jobs are gone. This too happened over a number of decades. People look around and ask where have all the jobs gone?

The political scene changed in this country and it seems people get their information from a narrow window of sites that have fostered the change in America. They have added God's name to the recipe and now they draw in followers by the thousands. What happened to thinking for yourself? What happened to using the common sense God gave you?

There seems to be a common thread in all most all conversations I have with people about what is going on in America. We discuss a problem in America and eventually it goes back to deregulation. Many people do not realize there are three to seven large corporations that dominate almost all areas of our life. This type of market form is called oligopoly. I looked up the definition in Wikipedia and posted it below.

I am astounded by the vast number of Americans that have never heard of oligopoly. But if you get people thinking, they determine there are a hand full of companies that control the markets. They also see the problem this has caused in their lives and in America. Yet, they will turn around and repeat the sound bits they have been fed. I get so tired of hearing "big government".

Big government is not the problem. The problem is we need to regulate companies so small and medium size business can compete with these giants. Many Americans lost their jobs with deregulation. Small and medium size companies were put out of business by these huge companies. Mom and Pop stores have closed all over America in the past 30 years. Numerous Americans lost their jobs and have never recovered their way of life they had in the early 1980's.

The following information is copied from Wikipedia for your convenience.
Wikipedia definition of oligopoly is the following, "An oligopoly is a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers (oligopolists). Oligopolies can result from various forms of collusion which reduce competition and lead to higher costs for consumers.
With few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of the others. The decisions of one firm therefore influence and are influenced by the decisions of other firms. Strategic planning by oligopolists needs to take into account the likely responses of the other market participants.
Oligopoly is a common market form where a small number of firms are in competition. As a quantitative description of oligopoly, the four-firm concentration ratio is often utilized. This measure expresses the market share of the four largest firms in an industry as a percentage. For example, as of fourth quarter 2008, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile together control 89% of the US cellular phone market."

The following is examples of oligopoly companies in the USA.

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