Bad Idea in Colorado

Thanks to Jump to the Left for tagging my blog. Sorry, Jump, I can't respond right now. For all who haven't heard, we're having a blizzard here in Denver. New powder and I'm stranded about a hundred twenty miles east of where the action is. Consolation is that while this kind of storm dumps a lot of snow on us, the resorts west of the Divide don't get it.

Speaking of not getting it, there's a move afoot to modify Colorado's anti-monopoly law. Basically, it prevents people from selling a commodity such as gasoline or prescription drugs below cost to drive competition out of business. When I heard there was a move afoot to modify the law to allow Safeway to sell gas below cost to drive Mom-and-Pop gas stations out of business, my GOPer alarm went off. Sure enough, it's our august Secretary of State, a GOPer, behind it. Surprisingly, though, he's managed to convince a Democratic Senator from Aurora the change is a good idea.

It isn't. Like "deregulation", this law allows GOPer contributors - big businesses with deep pockets - to take a temporary loss to eliminate a competitor. As with "deregulated" industries such as telecommunications, once the small competitors are eliminated, the big guy can charge what they want. The supporters of this law disengenuously argue that if a person sells gas at $1.00 per gallon - a huge loss, competitors will do the same then when the survivor goes to $4.00 per gallon, the competition will undercut them. Problem is, no competitors will be left to undercut them, exactly what the big operators are wanting to happen. This is true with pharmacies as well. Wal-mart drives the corner drug store out of business then sells at whatever price they want or even better, refuses to sell contraceptives based on "principles."

Allowing big business to buy out their competition by taking a loss on their products is not a "competitive" measure as sold by its sponsors, it's anticompetitive. I wonder who bought the sponsors.

This bad idea should disappear from the legislative radar as soon as possible.