Why are governments so interested in breaking up monopolies? To protect the biggest monopoly of all, the government.

The American people are skilled mental gymnasts. They can totally agree that monopolies in the private sector are bad. But monopolies on defense, law enforcement, courts, education, roads, and so on are perfectly fine, even necessary!

This comes down to the myth of the process. People have been convinced that since companies are motivated by profit, they are untrustworthy. Governments are allegedly altruistic, working in the best interests of the people. In reality, the people in government take their profits in power.

We pay businesses voluntarily and use their services if we like them. We are taxed whether we like it or not when it comes to government. Yet everyone goes crazy over alleged private monopolies, and doesn't bat an eye at the worst coercive monopoly of all!

Democracy is the buzzword meant to convince us that governments are not truly monopolies. After all, we get to participate! We choose the leaders, and they represent us.

An opinion piece in the New York Times by Jonathan Taplin is titled, Is It Time to Break Up Google?

He says:

We are going to have to decide fairly soon whether Google, Facebook and Amazon are the kinds of natural monopolies that need to be regulated, or whether we allow the status quo to continue, pretending that unfettered monoliths don't inflict damage on our privacy and democracy.

He assumes democracy is something worth protecting. At the same time, he ignores the damage that can occur from unfettered monoliths like government. You know, the type of government who has the arbitrary power to break up companies.