Our economy will continue to be controlled by a smaller and smaller group of financial giants

BY STEVEN KASZAB

The proposed Roger-Shaw Merger is feared to be a stepping-stone for increased costs to consumers. Multi billions of dollars have to be exchanged, and the controlling agent will have to make this cost up somehow. Further fear of shrinking communications monopolies within Canada has spurred politicians to seek a reason for this merger. Monopoly economics has been rooted into Canadian business models for many years. A small population, distributed over a very large landmass, presents businesses with huge challenges and costs to be assumed.

Many of our industrial and agricultural sectors are controlled by monopolies allowed to grow to astronomical power levels by those who these monopolies support financially, and control politically.

Control by monopoly

Agriculture: Five corporations worldwide control 85 % of all seed manufacturers, leaving only 12-15% to the free market for distribution and sales. Five to six corporations have controlled every fertilizer and seed provided to our farmers through patents.

Grocery: Canada has only 5-6 major corporations that control and manage a huge network of grocery stores, their supplier lists, and distribution networks. A monopoly exists within this sector, with price fixing and lacklustre supply chain control nationwide.

Manufacturing: American cars cannot be bought in the US and brought up here. Try it. An agreement in kind exists limiting Canadian consumers to Canadian supplied vehicles. Furthermore the car giants are limiting the introduction of domestic and foreign manufacturers to enter our economy and market.

New technology is not allowed to develop, establishing its own production facilities. The auto giants will manipulate these manufacturers and acquire any said technology through hook or crook methods. Protectionist activities go with monopolistic methods, limiting competition and driving their financial goals forward.

Communications technological sector: Acquiring, amalgamating and co-opting their sectors competition is the monopolies methodology. The cost of doing business in this field has driven prices to the roof, making Canada’s communication sector the most costly in the world. Profits upon profits; corporations making billions of dollars receive taxpayer’s funds as a corporate welfare scheme. The Federal Government is investigating these monopolies in turn, and while they have the opportunity to open the marketplace to American business – driving Rogers and Bell’s prices down – they will not. These same said firms donate millions to our political institutions. Greasing the wheels of industry, it is said.

Canada’s economy is equivalent in size to some American states, yet is controlled by said monopolies and the federal government. Often working hand in hand, these organizations work for the benefit of shareholders, private equity funds and owners, not the consumer.

Big government requires big bucks to function. It is always easier to work with an oligarchy than a large group of let’s say: legislators, citizens and consumers. Big business is not democratic in the least, but prefers certain boundaries that monopolies and authoritarian regimes offer.  Look at your marketplace wherever you may be, whether in: North or Central America, The Caribbean, Asia or the EU. You will find the tentacles of monopoly everywhere, with its often hidden influences upon your local governments.

The Canadian and American marketplace is not a free market, but controlled, manipulated and regulated by the not so new gangsters on the block. Our North American economy will continue to be controlled by a smaller and smaller group of financial giants.