this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
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Government. Not liberals or conservatives, but the government as a whole. Canada has had many years where both liberal and conservatives were in charge, and nothing changed.
Canada doesn't allow competition. We have 3 main internet providers, 3 main phone plan providers, like 2 grocery store chains, a couple airlines, etc.
When other companies attempt to come in to break up monopolies, they lobby, and get them shut down.
I mean where are we going to go? America isn't really an alternative, as much as Americans think it is. Our healthcare, gun laws, etc are things that make Canada really good. We could move to some European or Scandinavian country, but that's not as easy as it sounds, especially when you need to learn a new language, get accepted, move your entire life, and live in such a different culture.
So people in Canada just accept it. Maybe one day monopolies will be broken up, but there are no parties that are going to do that now. Left or right leaning.
Huh, it's almost as if they don't encompass as much of the political spectrum as they'd like us to believe.
Not just any government, but a government captured by capitalism
Isn't refusing to break up monopolies against the idea of capitalism and competition?
Capitalism and free markets are separate things within the economic "sphere" of society. Capitalism is an economic doctrine that focuses on directing production through private capital; free markets (in theory) ensure "equal access" to markets for products (as compared to monopoly or (economic, not necessarily drug) cartel markets which restrict access).
Over in the "public sphere", governments decide whether to jump in bed with private capital (often resulting in monopolies or cartels in economic marketplacs), or to make & enforce regulations that protect the (so-called) free market.
Or to make and enforce regulations that protect consumers -- i.e. human f-ing beings -- and enrich local economies without protectionism and "zero sum games", but I guess we shouldn't get too carried away here ;)
Thanks for the clarification!
We have a similar thing in Australia with our supermarkets, airlines and media. Our governments have been equally as stagnant in trying to change things. Housing and utility prices are fucked as well.
I haven't even seen a North American have a kind of acceptable political understanding in the 2020s until now.
Plenty of real people are quite aware of our current issues, they just get drowned out online.