Too Big to Continue

Many see the "too big to fail" policy applied to too big banks such as CitiBank, B of A, Wells Fargo and others as a terrible waste of the citizens’ money and would rather see that money applied to help decrease unemployment. Not only is the highly risky gambling of the banks continuing but it even increased. In addition, some of the banks grew substantially, e.g. Goldman Sachs and JP Chase, and became a political force that deters congress from enacting proper bank regulation. In the long run, "too big to fail" has become an independent political force with fewer constraints than our own congress. Clearly, no democracy can allow such a political reality. Eventually either the government will demolish the banks political power or it will succumb to it. In the latter case, which we may be seeing starting to unfold, the whole country will be enslaved to about 1000 super rich individuals. In other words, it will be the end of our current society.

In the last 50 years we have seen several power centers in industry. The oil companies have a substantial political power, they are totally impenetrable to any government attempts to even understand there pricing structure, let alone prevent them from getting rich off the backs of working people. Having 20 oil companies instead of ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and ConocoPhillips should be less powerful and less impenetrable.

The computer industry has gone through a chain of single companies controlling and dominating the industry gates. The early days, 50s to 80s, saw IBM strong arming the mainframe world. (There was nothing else around.) Companies such as Univac, Burroughs, RCA, NCR, Sperry Rand, CDC and GE were shoved out of the mainframe market slowly mainly due to IBM political muscling. IBM did not have the best products, although they had the much better contacts.

In size, influence and muscle Microsoft became the new bully on the block. And bullying it did plenty and may still be doing in certain domains. As opposed to the oil companies, Microsoft found itself as defendant in court many times and on the losing side not infrequently. That helped some, but Microsoft has done its best to squash competition, destroy creative processes and get large contract with the help of its power.

Now a days, Google is the Godzilla we live with. Google has not achieved total supremacy yet; it still fights the shadows of Microsoft as well tries to consolidate a large set of relatively smaller services that are now open to innovative entrepreneurs. We have no knowledge of Google bullying smaller companies, but once they grow further, bully is axiomatic; it will happen. Bullied smaller companies struggle and vanish.

Big banks, big oil companies and big technology purveyors each has their particular damages they inflict on society. Common to all the Bigs is the exaggerated political power they have, the decrease in innovative entrepreneurial activity, they lower the energy and most of all damage the livelihood of the American market.

Limits on the size of any company will prevent distortion of the political system and increase the energy and number of small dynamic creative cells that are the foundation of a booming country.