cjmitch said:
Would the Feds allow it..?
You know that whole anti-trust, monopoly thing
The gov't doesn't care about monopolies. They broke up ma bell for being a monopoly, into a lot of smaller companies. Look what's happening now. I just heard on the news the other day that 3 phone companies wanted to merge, and become the largest phone co. in the US. I didn't hear which 3 it was.
Check out the oil companies. Went through a small town on the way to Peoria last night. A new gas station popped up; Phillips/Conoco. Mobile/Exxon. The list goes on and on. In Illinois, 10 years ago, the gov't put a freeze on the utilities prices for NG and electricity, hoping that that would give companies enough time to come in and give some competition to keep prices low.
Yeah, right. The freeze expired today, so now the prices can go sky high; 55% in some instances. The gov't was really surprised that no newcomers came into play. But, who was it that allowed ComEd and Ameren to buy up all the smaller utilities, and start a monopoly? And...who was it that voted against extending the freeze? Now, Madigan wants to vote on it again to try to extend it.
Meanwhile, the little guys are taking it in the shorts. Don't even get me started on minimum wage; no increases in 10 years. How many raises have the congressmen given themselves in the last 10 years?
Sorry for the hijack. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.