Big Mergers, Antitrust and Conservatives

For five years, this blog has conducted a lonely crusade (along with others) to convince conservatives that big corporate mergers, and the resultant corporate empires, are about he worst thing there is for conservatism. See the archives of this blog, if you don't believe me (and can find the entries).

It took Henry Paulson to absolutely, conclusively prove me to be right. How can anyone even argue the point now?

This whole idea of "too big to fail" is only the tip of the iceberg. Big mergers, while always a part of capitalism, are not a part of free market theory. In fact, big mergers are a bad ting, in free market theory. Free market theory assumes a large number of private decision makers, where no one or two decision makers have too much influence to distort the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith. Corporate empires are central planning empires, fully as much as government empires (with only slightly more check from free market forces, which the combined government/corporate empires of Paulson are now removign).

As I have previously said, true leftists like big corporate empires. It gives them the perfect excuse to argue that government needs to tell them what to do. Big Business is the perfect foil for leftists to argue that only Big Government can control/counterbalance the huge corporate empires. Now there is the additional argument that only government can save those corporate empires, which are "too big to fail".

Has ever a person been proved more right than I have been? Have not these huge corporate mergers been an absolute disaster for conservatism? Even the Big Three automakers were created by long ago mergers. Would it not be much better if there were multiple decision makers running 50 American auto companies, instead of 3 decision makers running 2 American automakers (who knows what Chrysler is). From drug companies to telecommunications to Big Oil to financial institutions, big mergers have resulted in the death of conservatism, and the rise of Big Government central planning (not to mention corporate empire central planning, which has been disastrous, as expected).

Socialism has been the result of conservatives ignoring my advice. Stopping big mergers does not involve any government interference in the free market. In fact, it preserves the conditions which free makret theory requires to be fully applicable. As with Wall Street trading, conservatives and Republicans have resisted any interference with big corporate mergers because of supposed government "interference". Can that "interfererence" have possibly been worse than the present bailouts and socialism. Again, in foresight, my prediction of disaster has been correct. I told you that big corporations, created by merger (not market efficiency) would destroy everything conservatives hold dear (economically). Tell me where I was wrong!!! I dare you.

Yes, some voices are now being raised on this ponit--late. And still there is no constituency for stopping big corporate mergers. They are even being accelerated as necessary because of current economic conditions.

My truck company owning brother is being peripherally affected by the merger of Allied Waste and Waste Management--no. 2 and no. 3 in the waste management business in this country. In a rational, free market slystem, this merger would not be allowed. It should not be allowed. It was mergers like this that created that monster, AIG. It can be said. therefore, that corporate mergers defeated John McCain and the Republican Party in the recent election. They have certainly doomed conservatism in present day America.

Yes, I told you conservatives so. I was right. You were wrong. As I have said before, I am not a big enough person to avoid pointing this out.