Monopolies are a problem that have bedeviled economics and economies from time immemorial. On the one hand you ideally want a free market in which goods are able to be exchanged and companies are allowed to join or separate as they see fit, but along with that freedom comes a risk of having companies acquire so many of their competitors that they begin to exert undue control over the prevailing market prices of goods. Even the founding father of Capitalism himself, Adam Smith, worried about the how 'monopolies derange more or less the natural distribution of the stock of the society' (although it should be noted that Smith was writing about a different type of monopoly, government trade monopolies).
But what constitutes a true monopoly? Apparently to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren one company having too much control over the 'submarine' sandwich business is a real threat to a free and fair marketplace... because of course she thinks that.
We don't need another private equity deal that could lead to higher food prices for consumers. The @FTC is right to investigate whether the purchase of @SUBWAY by the same firm that owns @jimmyjohns and @McAlistersDeli creates a sandwich shop monopoly. https://t.co/mAFuuFYA5A
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 26, 2023
Yes, the company that owns Jimmy John's owning Subway would be exactly analogous to, say, John D. Rockefeller and his behemoth Standard Oil that dominated the oil industry until it was broken up in 1911. That's the reasoning that Sen. Warren is going with here.
Big Sandwich must not win!
— 🫃🏼💉🇺🇦Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) November 26, 2023
Nice of you to take a break from harassing Elon to break sandwichgate.
— Cryssie (@CryssieGA) November 26, 2023
Is this a parody account?
— Pierre Rochard (@BitcoinPierre) November 26, 2023
It can be hard to tell sometimes but we checked and no, that's her real account.
And like Italian dressing out of that squeeze container they use to put dressing on your Italian sub, the memes are flowing.
— Dr. Richard Harambe (@Richard_Harambe) November 26, 2023
— Prison Mitch (@MidnightMitch) November 26, 2023
— Magills (@magills_) November 26, 2023
— Donny Ferguson (donnyferguson.substack.com) (@DonnyFerguson) November 26, 2023
You can see if they were scooping up McDonalds and Burger King that might be a problem, but it's not like people have to eat subs. If they start charging too much people can just go to Wendy's instead, or their grocery store to make their own sub. Come on man.
A SANDWICH SHOP MONOPOLY?!?!?!
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) November 26, 2023
Big Sandwich must be stopped. https://t.co/tg93YJDJfZ
“Sandwich shop monopoly,” the Senator said with a straight face. https://t.co/3KHKiBgUl7
— Patrick Hedger (@pat_hedger) November 26, 2023
While you're focused on these serious sandwich matters, will you please launch a senate investigation to uncover whatever the hell these things were? https://t.co/d11bZEmDnG pic.twitter.com/oSzWWC38hI
— G (@stevensongs) November 26, 2023
Finally a question that we really could use a governmental investigation into.
This is all incredibly silly, especially when you consider the amount of business consolidation that the FTC has stood idly by and allowed to happen over the past few years. It seems like Disney owns basically every movie franchise and movie studio out there sometimes, Amazon and Facebook have been gobbling up competitors in their marketplaces for ages with nary a peep from our government beyond making concerned faces and maybe issuing a short 'tut tut'. Please, Senator, if you're going to encourage investigations into these sorts of things don't do it for a sub shop. No one cares.
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