This is a HeadGum Podcast. I don't know what to think

I don't know what to say

and the dance of my

yeah it's okay

I don't know.

Hello, I'm Adam Conover.

Hello, I'm Adam Conover.

Welcome to Factually, and we all have this vague sense that monopolies are bad, right?

Politicians complain about them.

I think Teddy Roosevelt hated them. I think I heard that in history class.

And come on, we all know there's something devious hiding under that

board game guy's top hat right he looks way too smug but what exactly is it that's so

bad about them right we don't often unpack what the issue actually is.

Well, the truth is, when one company dominates

an entire industry, it makes our lives worse

in countless ways. Now the obvious one is prices, right? When

companies compete on price that brings lower cost to you, but if only one

company dominates they can jack up the prices since you don't have anywhere else to turn, you're

screwed, right? But much more important than prices is power. When a company dominates

an industry, they gain a massive amount of power that they can use to harm others

for their benefit. And this happens in countless ways. Just for one example, they can

use their dominance to push out potential competitors. Take Amazon.

...