The US has been on a market consolidation spree for the past 40-years. Companies are absorbed and so market's actually diminish as does competition. Companies then impose their prices based upon much smaller market-competition. This is called "oligopolies" because they are not quite "monopolies". There is a "fictitious" competition amongst the top providers. And, in such cases, it is consumers who "pay-the-cost" of such market consolidation. What has happened recently is NO DIFFERENT than from the last time it occurred (1899): We have been through recently exactly the same process having been allowed by a "sleeping regulatory body" - and public sentiment seems to support that notion (from Pew Research): And I suggest it is not only "major tech companies". There has been significant market consolidation across the board in the US, some of it having been instigated by the Great Recession. Which caused numerous American companies dependent upon labor-input to shut-down operations in the US and buy product-production from China. Market Consolidation has been the key-factor behind higher consumer-prices. I am not the only one to hold such an assessment of market competitive reduction in the US: America’s Monopolies Are Holding Back the Economy Excerpt: And, from the Harvard Business Review: Is Lack of Competition Strangling the U.S. Economy? Excerpt: It is difficult to admit that SOMETHING FUNDAMENTAL HAS NOT HAPPENED TO MARKETS IN THE US! But it is high-time we did so ...
As I never tire of saying: We are in the midst of a major structural change in the economy. The Industrial Age is giving way to the Information Age - which is why labor-heavy production is shifting off-shore. Where are we going? Into an age that requires a better educated workforce. For which we need free, or nearly free*, Post-secondary Education available everywhere in the country. Note also that post-secondary education has produced in the US the largest part of America's private debt! (See here: Addressing the $1.5 Trillion in Federal Student Loan Debt) - excerpt:
