Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Is California a Monopoly?
In 2018, Venture capitalist Tim Draper launched the measure of splitting California into 3 states. There would be Northern California: containing San Francisco, Sacramento, and the other Northern counties. California: containing the coast from Monterey to Los Angeles. And Southern California: containing Fresno, Bakersfield, Riverside, and San Diego. Tim Draper argued, "Three states will get us better infrastructure, better education, and lower taxes". Tims has a solid point. The vast expanse of California is the most populous state which about 39.7 million people call their home. California takes up about 12% of the total population of the US. This means that California, with a population of 39.7 million, has the same number of senators as Wyoming, that has a population of 563,626. This gives California a type of monopolistic feel because of the lack of representation can almost be compared to lack of business for a product. California is the product, the population of 39.7 are the people with demand for this product, and the 2 senators of California is the single business that controls the market. By separating California into 3 states, it would increase the number of senators to 6 which would dilute the power of other states that have very small populations, such as Wyoming, and would allow those 6 senators to work together on various issues. This would change California from a type of monopoly towards more of an oligopoly because more people (“companies”) would have a say over different laws and regulations within California. In reality, splitting California into 3 states will probably never happen and would take a lot of work, but this situation reminded me of some characteristics of monopolies and oligopolies and felt more personal because we live in California.
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It was very interesting to see how you thought of California as a monopoly. You emphasized how California has such a high population, yet still only gets two senators, and if California split into three different states, we would get three times the senators which would give us much more power in the Senate. I feel like California would be more comparable to a high power firm in an oligopoly rather than a monopoly.
ReplyDeleteI like how relevant this post was. As we just passed the most recent election, this topic is being discussed a lot. I know that this prompt was taken off the ballot for the propositions, and as I just recently turned 18, I was more interested in these topics. I remember hearing about this CA-exit deal right after Brexit happened, but I never thought much about it. Turns out just a few years later, it would be brought up in politics and discussed pretty heavily amongst people.
ReplyDeleteI found this post really interesting because we just went through the midterm elections. I liked how you discussed the separation of California into 3 states and showed us why you think the markets in California make it a monopoly. I don't agree with your idea that California should split. I think that it would make the senator situation more complicated because if California splits than per population senator per state wouldn't work. For example, if you had 1 senator per a certain population and the Northern California might not meet that population because they are similar to Wyomings population. And at the same time the different states have different industries that could help each other.
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