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AG (Attention Getter)

These days, it seems like just about everything we do in our daily lives can somehow be connected back to a massive corporation like Apple, Google, or Amazon.

BG (Background)

Although this is an exaggeration to some extent, large companies are continuing to increase their sphere of influence in the United States and around the world. It is a constant pattern of the corporations strategically manipulating markets to their favor, and they have shown that it works.

Q (Question)

Are more federal anti-trust actions needed?

Answer (Summary Of Speech)

Yes, the U.S. needs to take more action when it comes to federal anti-trust. Anti-trust legislation protects competition from harmful practices, provides great benefits for consumers, and promotes innovation in many areas.

R1 (First Reason)

Anti-trust legislation provides protection for competition. FTC 2017 explains that the fundamental goal of antitrust legislation is to serve consumers & help keep competition active across all industries, making sure no one company dominates. The current lack of antitrust regulation means that the major companies can simply dominate & control the market, driving out competition or buying out the competition by building a trust. The function of antitrust is in the name itself, and it is supposed to stop companies from absorbing others to hinder competition.

R2 (Second Reason)

Consumers can also benefit, especially in the current economic environment with inflation and a potential recession on the horizon. Business Insider 7/13/22 describes how the main way consumers benefit from antitrust legislation is through product/service pricing, which again is a byproduct of maintained competition. If companies have to battle for the biggest share of consumers, they are more likely to lower prices. This also combats the current economic crisis by potentially reducing already-high prices as a result of inflation. But you can't have competitive, and low prices if one company has control over the market and therefore can price as high as they would like to.

R3 (Third Reason)

We also know that an increase in antitrust regulation means an increase in innovation overall. Roosevelt Institute 10/19/22 makes it clear that antitrust legislation must adapt to the current economic and market situations, and how the government is completely capable of pushing for more innovation as a part of their antitrust efforts. One of the ways they can do this is by providing more incentives to promote innovation. Currently, the law has let these major corporations acquire up to 400 other smaller companies each, according to recent data, showing that this is a real problem.

C (Conclusion)

So while Google, Amazon, or Apple may not own or control quite everything, they do have an overwhelming amount of power, and their range of influence just keeps increasing, making it clear that the U.S. needs to pursue more federal antitrust action.