Antitrust
J.McLaughlin Homepage
Take the example of Robinson Crusoe, stranded alone on an island. He is barely sustaining his life by picking up berries and other fruits. He could start a fire successfully at some point. He realized he could add fish to his food now. So, he would go to the shore and try to catch fish with his bare hands. Soon, he realized this was a very inefficient method of catching fish. It was taking too much time out of berry picking and may not even be worth most of the time. After that, he found some material on the island to make a hook and tie it to a self-woven rope. Now, he could catch more fish with more efficiency. Later, he was able to make a net and now was catching even more fish with more efficiency.
He had to store enough food for each technological advancement while building new technology. So, he was investing in technological advancement with his only significant asset, time. Eventually, he was also able to create a stone knife to cut. That made his life more manageable and opened new possibilities. He was able to cut trees and wood to craft a primitive boat for fishing away from the shore. The ship increased his catch and efficiency again. All these technological advancements emboldened him. Ultimately, he could craft weapons with pointed wooden heads to kill land animals and use them as food. His life was much better now.
The chronological history of this process shows a few critical elements that contributed to improving his life: Need, imagination, creativity, investments, building skills, and hard work. No matter how advanced we become, these six elements will always be critical for our survival, growth, and prosperity. Imagine a guy in a small town who invented a little gun that makes hunting more efficient and easy. Suddenly, everyone wants that gun. Soon, he realized that he did not have to do anything else in his life. He can live an extraordinary life by making and selling guns and bullets. Later, he also had to hire employees and interns to help him with his business. He also had to get some partners and investors to expand his business.
He became an example of generating wealth and living a good life. Young people eagerly joined his business as employees and interns to learn the art of gun and bullet making. Others, with more skills, intelligence, and capital, were trying to build copies of his inventions. So, competition kept increasing. He realizes that he cannot sell his products at the same prices. So, he finds cheaper but equally better materials, makes production more efficient, and cuts prices. In the end, all competitors had to adjust prices to the lowest possible level to sell their products and make some profits successfully. The community used the generated wealth to build other technologies by people involved in different trades.
Suddenly, a group of gangsters get involved. It claims that people conducting the guns and bullets trade are unfairly making too much money. They must control and regulate the manufacturers and producers to ensure justice. The problem was that the competition had already kept the markets near perfection. So, to justify their existence and utility, the gangsters crafted an evil plan and rules. If anyone increases the prices because his technology is better or in greater demand, we will call him a monopolist. If someone lowers the prices because he is producing more efficiently, we will call it price cutting to keep competition out of business. If prices remain the same, we will call it collusion between the producers and manufacturers. The plan was perfect. Every single producer was found guilty of one crime or the other. They could extort money in the name of fines from every producer.
But another thing started happening. The prices of guns and ammo started going up. The legal battles and fines were increasing the cost. So, the producers had to raise prices. The gangsters called it greed and price fixation and found another reason to extract more wealth from the manufacturers.
The chicken and egg game continued, and so did the inflation. Finally, people started questioning the situation. These producers were providing excellent products at affordable prices. Then came this gang with a promise to fix the markets. Instead, the prices started going up, and the quality started going down. Some intelligent and observant people pointed out that gangsters live extraordinary lives without doing anything productive. Gangsters realized the evolving problem. They are making good money with extortion. So, they hired some people who could talk and write better—and the people who had the trust of a community, like teachers.
The task of these people was to convince the community that it was not the fault of gangsters but that the producers were responsible for the problems. The reasons for the failures of gangsters are less money and weaker regulations. So, every community member must pay from their income along with tighter regulations, more vigorous enforcement, and raised fines. After a while, people realized that the new solutions did not work either. The only effects those had were more inflation and worse quality, brought down to satisfy the cost of ever-increasing demands of the gangsters. Soon, intelligent people started to tell people that the problems of inflation and lower quality were due to gangsters, who were using every tactic possible to hold on to power and control. Producers are just trying to profit by selling more and better products.
This realization led to a new dilemma: What to do now? The gangsters had already gained so much power and control that it would be tough to remove them. However, the situation would only worsen if the people did not remove the gang. So, more and more people gradually stopped cooperating with the gang, and the government rapidly lost power and control. Finally, individual freedom and sovereignty were regained. People were happy with lots of better and cheaper choices.