Sally Hubbard - Monopolies Suck: 7 Ways Big Corporations Rule Your Life and How to Take Back Control

Simon & Schuster

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Copyright 2020 by Sarah Hubbard

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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition October 2020

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Interior design by Ruth Lee-Mui

Jacket design by Francesca Richer

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hubbard, Sally (Antitrust expert), author.

Title: Monopolies suck : 7 ways big corporations rule your life and how to take back control / Sally Hubbard.

Description: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. | New York, NY : Simon & Schuster, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020032883 (print) | LCCN 2020032884 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982149703 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982149727 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: MonopoliesUnited States. | Corporate powerUnited States.| CorporationsMoral and ethical aspectsUnited States.

Classification: LCC HD2757.2 .H83 2020 (print) | LCC HD2757.2 (ebook) | DDC 338.8/20973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020032883

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020032884

ISBN 978-1-9821-4970-3

ISBN 978-1-9821-4972-7 (ebook)

To my children. May you learn to speak up, take action and trust that possibility is infinite.

America isnt alright. Our economy is working for a select few. Even before the coronavirus pandemic wreaked its devastation, most Americans could see that our countrythe Land of Opportunitywasnt how it was supposed to be. But COVID-19 spelled it out for us in neon lights.

When the world as we knew it came crashing down, some of the lowest-paid Americans were revealed to be our most essential workers, risking deadly exposure to keep their jobs while supporting everyone else. Communities of color were among the hardest hit by the virus, laying bare the compounding effects of systemic racism. As of this writing, small businesses are fighting to survive, and unemployed Americans face hunger and homelessness, while some of the wealthiest profiteer.

The clear coronavirus victors are monopolies, and we now depend on them even more. But in a winner-take-all economy, their strength has come at the expense of all others, leaving the rest of us to battle the pandemic from a point of weakness. Monopolies will make it out of the crisis just fine, but will we?

Decades of rampant health-care mergers made us sitting ducks for COVID-19, with only a few big companies left to produce critical supplies. Masks, ventilators, gowns, reagentswe couldnt get enough because so few suppliers remain, and they have stopped making things in America. Ever since the 1980s, politicians, antitrust law enforcers, and judges have bought into the myth that bigger is better, which has allowed monopolies to take over with barely any resistance. They sacrificed our resiliency and made America fragile.

The policy choices our government has made amid the COVID-19 crisis will shape power and wealth for years to come, and the most dominant companies have used their political influence to grow even more so. Most of us just have wanted our lives to go back to normal. But normal isnt good enough.

In normal times, if youre like many Americans, no matter how hard you work, you feel like you cant get ahead. You race through your days, but you cant possibly get everything done. You keep trying because you dont know what would happen if you eased up. Maybe youre burnt out, but you dont see a path out of the grind. Nothing feels certain or stable.

Overcoming your daily struggles is up to youor so youre told. You just need to get better at self-care and setting boundaries at work. And if only you meditated every morning, decluttered your home, and stopped eating gluten, youd have the energy and presence of mind to manage an avalanche of stressors headed your way.

But perhaps you have a nagging sense that your everyday problems go beyond you.

Youre living in the New Gilded Age after all, a time of excess wealth reminiscent of the late 1800s, when industrialist tycoons accumulated riches off of workers backs. Inequality today is stark, like in San Francisco, where 75 billionaires coexist with thousands of homeless people. The American government has failed to ensure its citizens have access to the basics of humanity, from affordable health care to a habitable planet to safe food and water. You may ask yourself: why do taxes keep going upfor everyone except the ultrarichwhen government doesnt do the bare minimum its job requires?

People all across America feel the ground is constantly shifting underneath them. Inequality and hopelessness are making some people so angry they have to find others to blame, like immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and/or women. But those with historically less power in our society are not the source of Americas problems.

Beneath all of this pain lies a hidden culprit: pure, unbridled monopoly power. No matter your race, gender, age, sexual orientation or identity, religion, class, or political party, were all getting screwed on a systemic level by the same menace of monopoly. The most vulnerable among us get hit the hardest.

Monopolies pervade our everyday lives in ways we dont realize. When your expenses keep going up but your income does not, when youre price-gouged buying an EpiPen for your childs life-threatening allergy, when you struggle to parent a child who is addicted to social media, and when you cant find common ground with millions of your fellow Americans, monopoly power is playing a key, destructive role. But you can help stop it. In this book, I will show you how monopoly power rules your life and what must be done to put an end to it.

Monopolists of the past who controlled entire industries like railroads and oil were aptly called robber barons because they built their business models on exploitation. Ill explain how todays global monopolies are no different. Theyre robbing us of money by charging high prices, skirting taxes, and reducing our pay and economic opportunities. This theft is only the beginning. Theyre also robbing us of innovation, choice, the ability to take care of our sick, a healthy food supply, a habitable planet, our privacy, fair elections, a robust press, and, ultimately, the American dream.

While Amazon promises low prices, and Facebook and Google offer services for free, in truth, tech giants prices are exorbitant, but you have no way of knowing how much you are paying. This book will expose the true costs.

But Americas monopoly crisis is not just about Big Tech. Its big health care, big agriculture, Big Pharma, big pick an industry, any industry. Big