Cartels, my Grandfather and the Super Rich

Yes, I have been pondering (a joy of being retired) about what has happened in my lifetime to produce the Super Rich (Davos et al.).

Why doesn’t the Capitalist treasured concept of ‘free market forces’ limit these excesses? 

I have concluded ‘it never did!’

My Grandfather (Henry Ernest) and Great Grandfather (Ebenezer) owned a grocery shop in Biggleswade (just 50 miles up the A1) from London.

They were part of the small town’s prosperous business community, owning a car before WWII and living in a large detached house, which had the first domestic heating system (back boiler & hot water tank) in the town. Ebenezer was on the board of the local Workhouse (he stood out against the men having a glass of beer at Christmas as he was a good Methodist).

Now – why were they able to live so well compared to others in Biggleswade?

I have concluded that they, and the say four other grocers in the town, operated an informal Cartel.

I am not saying they liked their competitors but neither were they in the business of slashing their prices to drive them out of business. As long as they had a ‘reasonable’ share of the town’s grocery trade they were definitely NOT going to rock the boat.

The gap between them and the inmates of the said Workhouse was quite wide but nowhere near as wide as between the average citizen and the Super Rich we see today.

The simple fact is the same ‘informal’ Cartels exist today but on a much larger scale. This is due to much better logistics and computer based information systems available to the big boys which allows them to operate on a national (Sainsbury’s) or international (Lidl) level.

A new entrant into the UK energy (such as Ovo Energy) have no interest of ‘slashing its prices’ once it has established a ‘reasonable’ market share. They are all creaming it!

The problem is a massive one that could well destabilise our society and cause civil unrest and I cannot think how mere politicians can legislate to tackle it.

Comments welcomed.