By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 11/09/2026Monopolies had to be fought because wealth concentration would create "autocrats of trade," so powerful as to be beyond the reach of any regulator, any union, any competitor. 1212
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 11/09/2026Even if a company achieved its monopoly by being the best in the world - by making the best products at the best prices while paying the best wages - its power still needed blunting, lest it change its mind and start charging more, reducing quality, and paying less: pluralistic.net/2022/02/20/w...pluralistic.net4:08 PM · Sep 11, 2026 1295
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 11/09/2026The Chicago School economists who were catapulted to dominance by Reagan, Thatcher, et al won this debate by changing the frame. They insisted (as neoclassicals love to do) that economics is no mere social science, obsessed with squishy, qualitative matters like "power." 1263
