Monopolized

Life in the Age of Corporate Power

By: David Dayen

Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne

Over the last 40 years our choices have narrowed, our opportunities have shrunk, and our lives have become governed by a handful of very large and very powerful corporations. Today, practically everything we buy, everywhere we shop, and every service we secure comes from a heavily concentrated market.

This is a world where four major banks control most of our money, four airlines shuttle most of us around the country, and four major cell phone providers connect most of our communications. If you are sick, you can go to one of three main pharmacies to fill your prescription, and if you end up in a hospital almost every accessory to heal you comes from one of a handful of large medical suppliers.

Dayen, the editor of the American Prospect and author of the acclaimed Chain of Title, provides a riveting account of what it means to live in this new age of monopoly and how we might resist this corporate hegemony. Through vignettes and vivid case studies, Dayen shows how these monopolies have transformed us, inverted us, and truly changed our lives, at the same time providing listeners with the raw material to make monopoly a consequential issue in American life and revive a long-dormant antitrust movement.

©2020 David Dayen (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

A Must Read

One of those rare books everyone should read. Very easy to understand, very straight forward.

Great book… just wish it abstained from political bias

The book is really a must read. I just tend to lose respect for authors when they insert their political bias on an issue that has happened throughout all administrations. It is slight, but could do without.

Fantastic

I knew the USA had a monopoly problem. I’ve lived in 9 different cities in the last decade and never had more than one option for high speed internet in each location. However, I never saw the big picture. I didn’t know the extent of the monopoly problem. It exists in almost every industry, hidden under the umbrella of parent companies that give us the illusion of choice. This is a great read for anyone who wants to know the true limits of our choices as customers and the endlessness of the investor class’s greed. The best part is that the book tells us what we can do about it. A great follow up to this is Goliath by Matt Stoller, because by examining the successful anti-trust movements of our past, we can see a roadmap to building the anti-trust movement of the future.

A real eye opener!

Well researched and well written explanation of so many of our economic and political problems. Until we break up the monopolies we will get nowhere.

Very Informative. Very Well-Narrated.

Every American should read this book. It gets to the heart of the problem and is so much deeper than the repetitive debates about things like taxes, spending, regulation. And the chapter about monopolies in the prison system will absolutely infuriate you.