Breaking up a monopoly is one way of solving the problem, but there are others. We could also consider having a state or national company that does the same thing.
Take Amazon, for example. I want a widget, so I search for widgets on Amazon, because they are likely to have the most widgets. Out of a heap of prototype-Amazon companies, they came to the top by being cheap, and they did that by treating their employees badly. Now they are big, they will squat on that number one spot unless something major knocks them off. Split Amazon into four equal bits, and either those four equal bits will compete and drive down worker’s conditions, or the four bits will work together and nothing has effectively changed.
Suppose we have some state-owned body that provided the same service. It might be like the Post Office, but for selling stuff. Unlike Amazon, it would gain no advantage from state subsidies, or expecting the workers to also claim state aid.
Don’t let’s kid ourselves: old-school nationalisation had its problems. But the alternatives aren’t looking that great either.
