The Rigging of the American Market - by Robert Reich

Found here. Reproduced here for fair use and discussion purposes. My comments in bold.
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Having commented on several of Dr. Reich's posts, I am increasingly convinced that his ideology make him incapable of seeing what is right before his eyes. Yet he resolutely spouts leftist rhetoric time after time, completely unaware of the present economic situation.
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Much of the national debate about widening inequality focuses on whether and how much to tax the rich and redistribute their income downward.

But this debate ignores the upward redistributions going on every day, from the rest of us to the rich. These redistributions are hidden inside the market.

The only way to stop them is to prevent big corporations and Wall Street banks from rigging the market. (We have this big, powerful, involved government, yet corporations and banks still rig the market? Sounds like a failure of government.)

For example, Americans pay more for pharmaceuticals than do the citizens of any other developed nation. (Using a leftist argument, perhaps we should pay more because we are so much richer than other nations.)

That’s partly because it’s perfectly legal in the U.S. (but not in most other nations) for the makers of branded drugs to pay the makers of generic drugs to delay introducing cheaper unbranded equivalents, after patents on the brands have expired.

This costs you and me an estimated $3.5 billion a year – a hidden upward redistribution of our incomes to Pfizer, Merck, and other big proprietary drug companies, their executives, and major shareholders. (Dr. Reich uses the phrase "perfectly legal" to describe this situation, but this sounds to me like something that falls under antitrust laws. The government has an extended discussion of this on its web page, so I can't see how such activity is "perfectly legal.")

We also pay more for Internet service than do the inhabitants of any other developed nation.

The average cable bill in the United States rose 5 percent in 2012 (the latest year available), nearly triple the rate of inflation.

Why? Because 80 percent of us have no choice of Internet service provider, which allows them to charge us more. (The link is to an article about Dr. Reich's opinion, it's not a reference. And, there is no mention of this 80%. So absent documentation, we shall ignore the statistic. 

But speaking of choice, might we ask why people are fined for not buying health insurance? Why don't they have a choice? And what about the postal service? The law says that private business is not allowed to compete with USPS and cannot deliver letters. And why is the Left opposed to choice when it comes to participating in Social Security?

Further, when voters exercise their choice in great majorities, like gay marriage for example, what happens to their choice at the hands of a judiciary that overturns the will of the people? And what about incandescent light bulbs? They're illegal to purchase now. 

Dr. Reich's caterwauling about choice seems pretty selective.)

Internet service here costs 3 and-a-half times more than it does in France, for example, where the typical customer can choose between 7 providers. (Here in backwater Montana, we have a choice between 6 internet providers.)

And U.S. cable companies are intent on keeping their monopoly. (Monopolies are illegal.)

It’s another hidden upward distribution – from us to Comcast, Verizon, or another giant cable company, its executives and major shareholders.

Likewise, the interest we pay on home mortgages or college loans is higher than it would be if the big banks that now dominate the financial industry had to work harder to get our business. (Unsupported assertion. Interest rates are historically low, and have been for years.)

As recently as 2000, America’s five largest banks held 25 percent of all U.S. banking assets. Now they hold 44 percent – which gives them a lock on many such loans. (Does Dr. Reich remember the bailouts for these banks, who were deemed too big to fail? Whose fault is it, exactly, that these huge banks were given billions of taxpayer dollars?)

If we can’t repay, forget using bankruptcy. Donald Trump can go bankrupt four times and walk away from his debts, but the bankruptcy code doesn’t allow homeowners or graduates to reorganize unmanageable debts. (Sounds like another failure of government.)

So beleaguered homeowners and graduates don’t have any bargaining leverage with creditors – exactly what the financial industry wants. (?? It's a LAW that makes student loans so difficult to include in bankruptcy, loans underwritten and structured by GOVERNMENT.)

The net result: another hidden upward redistribution – this one, from us to the big banks, their executives, and major shareholders.

Some of these upward redistributions seem to defy gravity. Why have average domestic airfares risen 2.5% over the past, and are now at their the highest level since the government began tracking them in 1995 – while fuel prices, the largest single cost for the airlines, have plummeted?

Because America went from nine major carriers ten years ago to just four now. Many airports are now served by one or two. (Major corporations cannot merge or purchase competitors without a lengthy government review process. Hm.)

This makes it easy for airlines to coordinate their fares and keep them high – resulting in another upward redistribution. (Coordinating pricing is illegal.)

Why have food prices been rising faster than inflation, while crop prices are now at a six-year low? (Because, sir, raw pricing of crops is only one of many indicators of the final price of the product. And what about farmers subsidies? Government price ceilings? Regulation and lawsuits? Does Dr. Reich think any of these things might influence the price of goods?)

Because the giant corporations that process food have the power to raise prices. Four food companies control 82 percent of beef packing, 85 percent of soybean processing, 63 percent of pork packing, and 53 percent of chicken processing. (Again, this could not happen if government were doing its job.)

Result: A redistribution from average consumers to Big Agriculture.

Finally, why do you suppose health insurance is costing us more, and co-payments and deductibles are rising? (I thought obamacare fixed this. Remember, the average consumer was going to save $2500?)

One reason is big insurers are consolidating into giants with the power to raise prices. They say these combinations make their companies more efficient, but they really just give them power to charge more. (Who is "they?" Is "they" government? Why is government failing?)

Health insurers are hiking rates 20 to 40 percent next year, and their stock values are skyrocketing (the Standard & Poor’s 500 Managed Health Care Index recently hit its highest level in more than twenty years.) (Hooray for obamacare! As is typical for the Left, a new law is supposed to "fix" things. But government never "fixes" anything, it interferes. Laws are obstacles, for which business tries to find a way around in order to continue functioning. These ripple effects are never accounted for by the central planners.)

Add it up – the extra money we’re paying for pharmaceuticals, Internet communications, home mortgages, student loans, airline tickets, food, and health insurance – and you get a hefty portion of the average family’s budget. (So rather than government solving the problem, it actually contributes to the problem, creates the problem, screws up the market so that people spend more than they would have to otherwise. In actual fact, these increases are hidden taxes, not hidden price increases.)

Democrats and Republicans spend endless time battling over how much to tax the rich and then redistribute the money downward.

But if we didn’t have so much upward redistribution inside the market, we wouldn’t need as much downward redistribution through taxes and transfer payments. (This is not true. There is no causal relationship between tax levels and government meddling with the market. And besides, Dr. Reich doesn't want lower taxes anyway.)

Yet as long as the big corporations, Wall Street banks, their top executives and wealthy shareholders have the political power to do so, they’ll keep redistributing much of the nation’s income upward to themselves. (Dr. Reich doesn't seem to understand why corporations want to influence government. It's because government has so much power. It pays off political friends, punishes enemies, floods the market with redistributed money, and is the Big Player in the economy. Of course the business world wants to influence government. 

With all that money flowing around, business naturally wants to get a piece of the action. The solution is to reduce the money in Washington, reduce government's power, and scale back its social engineering initiatives. When government has less, power, there is less opportunity and thus less desire to influence it and buy favors.)

Which is why the rest of us must gain political power to stop the collusion, bust up the monopolies, and put an end to the rigging of the American market. (I'm sure Dr. Reich doesn't want government to stop rigging the market. Clearly he wants more of it.)