oligopoly thread

[phuckphace]

and just in time for Thanksgiving (as in "thanks for giving us all your money!")

http://i.imgur.com/pnMMj.jpg

what's your opinion on this? is it good or bad for the people, and what should be done (if anything)? in case somebody wants to say "economy of scale," I think it's obvious by this point that the overall costs of this arrangement have outweighed the benefits. it's not as though these companies are passing along the savings they reap by capturing more market share to their employees in the form of higher wages and benefits.

pretty much all I see here is a staggering amount of money rising to the top like the green head of a green beer.

[Stronk Serb]

The problem in capitalism is that the all money pyramid looks like this

\$$$/
-\$/
--V--
All the money is at the top in the pockets of the fatcats. It's not good at all. There are no benefits for the low-tier employees, they just have a new overlord. My aunt works in an Italian banking and insurance corporation branch in Serbia and there were talks at the board to buy out of the chain and be independent but the plan got sabotaged by the higher-ups from the main HQ in Italy by sending and appointing Italians on the board of directors.

[Vlerchan]

I'm not even going to argue that oligopolies are a positive economic arrangement. Which might give an indication of how truly awful they are.

Interesting display though.

[Miserabilia]

Eh. I've always had a bit of a "whatya gonna do about it" status on this.
Also UNILEVER ftw. Almost every food/food related product in my house is unilever.

Also, did you make that graph? It looks really neat.

Also also, I like how the company with the heart logo is named " good humor" here.
I've never even heard of it by that name.
They have a different name in EVERY LANGUAGE.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall%27s_%28ice_cream%29#Around_the_world)


Also also also, illuminati confirmed all over the place.

[ImCoolBeans]

It's messed up. You can walk down an aisle in a supermarket and see 25 different brand names, which are actually the same company. These companies are massive and control their entire markets. It makes price fixing too easy.