Conglomerations: Good or Bad For the Consumer?

I think that having a few major conglomerations running most of the businesses is good for them, but bad for us as consumers. It's really beneficial for large companies to be able to own smaller companies and have lots of assets, but it really limits the content available for consumers. There are still many creative forces under the conglomerations, but they're controlled by a company that may have a specific agenda. Therefore, when a company under the conglomeration is creating something, they have to worry about pleasing their boss. Anything too controversial by the conglomeration's views won't be created. With only a few major companies controlling most of the smaller ones, it really limits views that would otherwise be presented if it was just independent companies producing content on its own.

Conglomerations are also bad for potential employees. If someone wants to work in advertising, there are less jobs available to them in a conglomeration than there would be if conglomerations didn't exist. If a company buys up several smaller companies, instead of each company having their own individual advertising department, there's just one company-wide advertising department. This keeps costs down for the conglomerations, because they have to hire less people, but for someone looking for a job it's a very bad thing. It means that there's not as many jobs total, and it's harder to get the existing jobs.

Basically, most of the benefits of having conglomerations are going to the people in the conglomeration.