Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 11:00:50 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: More on Mullen


On Sun, 25 Aug 1996, Kevin Cabral wrote:
> 	Curiously how do you feel about free competition tending to 
> result in horizontal mergers, thus making competition tend towards
> resulting in monopoly. Could you summarize your position, and/or provide a
> reference to works that address this subject that you agree with?
	I tend to side with most Austrian school economists in this
regard.  While the market never lacks for people trying to corner it, I
think that history shows that coercive monopolies can only be maintained
(without the inevitable problems of cheating within cartel arrangements)
by the blocking of market entry.  This has only been achieved by state
action.  Ironically, we discussed some of these issues on marxism1
sometime earlier this year, I think... my best sources in economics for
this issue are Murray Rothbard's MAN, ECONOMY, AND STATE, but in history,
the writings of Gabriel Kolko specifically -- especially THE TRIUMPH OF
CONSERVATISM, which documents how federal agencies were created for the
purpose of squelching competition.

> 	Also, does your understanding of imperialism include Lenin's idea
> that imperialism is principally the dividing of markets and resources amongst
> corporations? Specifically what forms of imperialism are you against?
> Could you state your definition of imperialism for the list briefly? 
> Thanks, 
> Kevin
> Cols, Oh
	In general, I think Lenin and Hilferding were on the right track
with regard to the incestuous relationship of imperialism and various
multinational corporations.  The incidious network of state-guided
international agencies designed to subsidize corporations and to socialize
their risk is quite extensive, and as a libertarian, I am against all such
forms of corporativism.  I think it was Norman Thomas -- or was it Gore
Vidal -- shucks -- who said that in America, the working class are
capitalists, the middle class are socialists, and the rich are communists.
Anyway, the point here, is that corporate welfare has international
imperialist implications, and many Austrian-influenced libertarians have
provided some interesting analyses of what is going on.

	Naturally, outright colonialism is not on my top ten list either,
nor is national socialism, state capitalism, and state socialism.

	Hope this helps.
					- Chris
=================================================Chris Matthew Sciabarra, Ph.D
Visiting Scholar, NYU Department of Politics
INTERNET:  sciabrrc-AT-is2.nyu.edu
http://pages.nyu.edu/~sciabrrc
=================================================


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