Mutual Broadcasting – Northwestern Reviewing Standing – Big Business – November 6, 1949 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
Business. Free Enterprise and the spirit of competition. Some businesses got big – very big. Some businesses grew to enormity; acquiring and absorbing smaller businesses in order to become the dominant business in any given market.
That was 1949 – but the same held true in 1939 as it did most other years going back as far as the concept of goods and services was a part of life.
But the concept of Big Business – those corporations that grew so enormous that many felt their mere size and their dominance in the marketplace overtook all others trying to compete – that big business was now a threat to our basic concept of free enterprise and competition for the consumer dollar – that soon would exist a series of monopolies which dictated prices, goods and services.
These Big Businesses were beholden only to the stockholders and the fear that many in Washington held was that the average person; the consumer, would be overlooked and rendered insignificant because choice became less and less and being the dominant force in the marketplace meant charging for basic needs could (and would) skyrocket – because it was all about profit and all about the shareholders and choice would soon be a thing of the past.
That was 1949 – and 73 years later it has only gotten worse and those fears expressed on Capitol Hill became very real as corporate takeovers escalated – de-regulation flourished and consumers were squeezed out of every last penny for basic needs.
Seems things haven’t changed – Corporations are still beholden to stockholders, still looking at only profit margins and the ever-present takeover – in many cases taking over a particularly successful company only to strip it of its assets and rendered it moot; a shell with no life left. Free Enterprise rings hollow and competition is stifled.
This discussion, part of the series Northwestern Reviewing Stand gathers together several economists and business leaders and asks the pertinent questions for 1949. It is, for the most part, dry listening – no drama, no shocking pronouncements – only the eerie sense that some things never change and may never change and we have achieved a level of mediocrity unprecedented in our lifetimes.
Well . . . they said that in 1949 – and they are still saying it.
Here is that episode of Northwestern Reviewing Stand as it was broadcast on November 6, 1949 over the Mutual Radio Network.
