thinkopoly...

What is a monopoly? A monopoly is a company that has the entire control over a certain product, brand, market, area, or even another company. Like one of our favorite games- Monopoly, where the whole idea of the game is to gain control of ALL the other properties.

Monopolies are the basis of America. We live off monopolies. Think about it. We have McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Pepsico®, and Mars®. We think we get all sorts of different brands. We think we are drinking Gatorade, but did you know Gatorade is owned by Quaker Oats? and did you know that Quaker oats is owned by Pepsico? Bet not. The charts at the bottom of the post are helpful in understanding a few of the huge companies in our nation. Now so far I've only stated a fact: that our country has a lot of monopolies. To elaborate on that point I have to say that it can be a good or a bad thing. A good thing is that it is better for the economy, in I some ways. Its great that we can have a huge multi billion dollar company that can help employ people and enable people to have a huge source of money flowing through the economy. The bad thing for the economy is that it monopolizes all the business. It is much harder for an upstart company to gain a market and clientele when it is all going to the monopoly. It is also bad for the consumer because this means that the product is totally controlled by the company, meaning the consumer has to pay pretty much whatever the company charges. They might also not get the kind a service or quality they want if all they get is what's available. As Americans you would think that there would be less monopolies. More monopolies = less choice. That is something that Americans hate. To us, the more choice the better.