Dialectics of the capitalist monopoly
Oleg Komolov
A system-forming role in the modern capitalist economy belongs to large corporations. As we showed earlier in the article "The Myth of Small Business" , by the share of assets and the resulting profit, by productivitylabor and innovation activity, in terms of salaries and the quality of social security - everywhere large business leaves its small competitors far behind. And even for such an indicator as the number of jobs, several hundred largest enterprises are gradually displacing millions of small economies out of the economy.
Practice confirms the general fidelity of VI's thesis. Lenin, put forward by him in 1917 in the work "Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism": "Tens of thousands of the largest enterprises are everything; millions of small - nothing " [1] .
In 2013, 99.8% of EU non-financial sector enterprises belonged to small and medium business, 0.2% - to large companies. At the same time, the latter accounted for 33.1% of the workforce and 42.9% of the value added. Note also that 92% of EU companies are classified as microenterprises with up to 10 employees [5]. In recent years, there has been a downward trend in the proportion of people employed in the EU MPS: since 2008, this indicator has decreased by 3.5%. As in the United States, large European companies hold the palm for innovation activity. Only 2% of SME enterprises are engaged in science-intensive sectors of the economy. So, in Great Britain in large companies in 2012, 55.5% of employees engaged in research activities on a permanent basis were employed. In Germany - 73%, in France - 57,7%, Italy - 52%. Large business is also more actively investing in R & D. In 2012, in Great Britain, 63.2% of investments in the development and implementation of new technologies were carried out by big business, in Germany - 85%, in France - 67%. 80% of large companies in 2012 Germany produced products for export with an average of 11% for the economy. In Spain, 93% at 4%, in France - 70% at 5%[6] . Large companies behave more innovatively and, more than small businesses, contribute to the development of scientific and technological progress. Nevertheless, we should not forget that the process of consolidation of companies and the subsequent monopolization of the economy may have a negative impact on the development of new technologies.
The corporation, which has received monopoly power on the market, as well as several oligopoly companies, can start deliberately slow down the process of scientific and technical progress at a certain moment, proceeding from the desire to maximize profits. IN AND. Lenin in his work "Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism" wrote on this score: "Since monopoly prices are established, at least for a time, the incentive reasons for technical, and, consequently, for any other progress, move forward ; so far is the economic opportunity to artificially delay technological progress " [7]. Further, the author gives an example of how a bottle cartel bought from the inventor a patent for a new, more efficient bottle machine and hid it "under the cloth," waiting for the full depreciation of the equipment available.
There is an opinion that large corporations, publicly announcing their colossal expenditure on research, do not actually use the funds for their intended purpose, but only try to "throw dust" into the public eye. For example, USA Today notes that in 2003, Microsoft, the actual monopoly on the software market, announced that it spent $ 5 billion on R & D. The result of this was the registration of 528 patents [8] . Those. one patent cost the company $ 9.5 million. At the same time, firms such as IBM and Xerox spent 1 patent for $ 1.4 million HP - $ 1.9 million.
Another famous example of the American geochemist Claire Patterson, who in 1965 began an active scientific work on the study of the harmful effect of lead on the state of human health, is indicative [9]. The scientist, in particular, tried to ensure that manufacturers refused to add lead to gasoline. This jeopardized the profits of oil corporations, since gasoline with lead content was in high demand among motorists, reducing engine noise. The threat is also hanging over the lead companies. Big business announced a secret war to Patterson, using all available means: lobbying, large-scale media campaigns, bribing scientists, active financing of dubious research activities, allegedly proving his wrong. Patterson was denied contracts with many scientific organizations, including the formally neutral health service of the United States. In 1971, the scientist was expelled from the US National Research Council on Pollution of the Atmosphere by Lead. In fact, big business, wishing to save profits and using their economic domination, deliberately prevented the spread of progressive scientific ideas. Later, science nevertheless came to a common agreement about the harmful effects of lead on the human body, and many suggestions and ideas of Paterson were adopted in many countries of the world, including in the US. And this is confirmed by another thesis put forward by VI Lenin: capitalist monopolies can never completely and for a very long time stop scientific progress. "But the tendency to stagnate and decay, inherent in monopoly, continues to act in turn, and in certain industries, in individual countries, for certain periods of time it takes precedence" Later, science nevertheless came to a common agreement about the harmful effects of lead on the human body, and many suggestions and ideas of Paterson were adopted in many countries of the world, including in the US. And this is confirmed by another thesis put forward by VI Lenin: capitalist monopolies can never completely and for a very long time stop scientific progress. "But the tendency to stagnate and decay, inherent in monopoly, continues to act in turn, and in certain industries, in individual countries, for certain periods of time it takes precedence" Later, science nevertheless came to a common agreement about the harmful effects of lead on the human body, and many suggestions and ideas of Paterson were adopted in many countries of the world, including in the US. And this is confirmed by another thesis put forward by VI Lenin: capitalist monopolies can never completely and for a very long time stop scientific progress. "But the tendency to stagnate and decay, inherent in monopoly, continues to act in turn, and in certain industries, in individual countries, for certain periods of time it takes precedence" capitalist monopolies can never completely and for a very long time stop scientific progress. "But the tendency to stagnate and decay, inherent in monopoly, continues to act in turn, and in certain industries, in individual countries, for certain periods of time it takes precedence" capitalist monopolies can never completely and for a very long time stop scientific progress. "But the tendency to stagnate and decay, inherent in monopoly, continues to act in turn, and in certain industries, in individual countries, for certain periods of time it takes precedence"[10] - he wrote.
The negative manifestation of the monopolization of the economy also lies in the fact that the largest corporations sometimes achieve such material strength that it allows them to win over the competition, using not only economic but also political instruments, the main one of which is lobbying for their own interests through the use of corruption schemes. This thesis confirms the results of the study, obtained during the study of corruption in 34 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The report analyzed 427 cases of bribery that took place over the past 15 years [11]. The largest corrupt activity is shown by large companies. They account for 60% of the disclosed episodes of bribery. The share of small and medium businesses is only 4%. In the remaining 36% of cases, researchers were unable to determine the size of a firm convicted of corruption cases. In general, large companies resort to corrupt schemes to obtain state contracts. Most of the detected episodes of bribery are directly related to the participation of representatives of top management of the largest corporations. Researchers note that the pernicious impact of corruption on the development of the economy is not only in the state's inadequate profit, but also in irrational use of resources and distortion of incentives for the development of market participants. Perhaps the most common reproach toward monopolies is their pricing policy.
An important contradiction of the capitalist economy in this case lies in the fact that the constantly increasing labor productivity (which we found to be in direct correlation with the increase in production) should help to reduce prices, or at least slow down their growth. Meanwhile, the analysis of statistics shows the opposite: the growth of the consumer price index (CPI) significantly outpaces the increase in labor productivity.
Dynamics of labor productivity index and consumer price index in the USA (%)
Source: Compiled by the author according to OECD
It is characteristic that the gap continues to grow as the concentration of industrial and banking (this issue will be discussed in detail below) increases in US capital. Certainly, there may be several reasons for the rise in prices caused by inflation, such as the growth of government spending, active money emission, the depreciation of the national currency, etc. Nevertheless, monopoly price growth obviously also contributed to the development of this imbalance and the monopolization of the US economy is directly related to the rapid growth of the consumer price index: the correlation coefficient between such indicators as the CPI benchmark and the share of assets of the largest US companies, which we already considered above , is 0.9 6 (max: 1), which indicates a high level of interdependence of the indicators in question.
A similar situation can be observed in the economies of all developed capitalist countries. On average, in the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) between 1991 and 2014, The consumer price index grew 2.2 times faster than labor productivity [12] .
Thus, the monopolization of the market economy is an objective phenomenon, which, on the one hand, has prerequisites for improving the efficiency of economic development, on the other hand, it can, under certain conditions, hamper these processes, deepening the contradictions of modern capitalism.
[1] VI Lenin. Complete Works, vol. 27 pp. 391
[3] Bodrunov SD, Grinberg RS, Sorokin D. Ye. Reindustrialization of the Russian economy: imperatives, potential, risks. // The economic revival of Russia. 2013. No. 1 (35) p. 20
[4] LI Abalkin "Problems of small and medium-sized business in the process of reforming the Russian economy" / / LI, Abalkin, Selected Labor: in 4 vols. T. IV. The Free Economic Society of Russia; comp. Gribanova OM - Moscow: JSC "NPO" Economics ", 2000 p. 675
[5] Fragile recovery, Annual report on European SMEs 2013/2014 //European Commission
[6] The decree. Op., P. 43
[7] Lenin. IN AND. Complete Works, vol. 27 pp. 397
[9] See more details R.Adler Clair Patterson's Battle Against Lead Pollution // California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California 2006 pp. 74-85
[10] VI Lenin. Complete Works, vol. 27 pp. 397
Подробнее: http://comstol.info/2016/05/ekonomika/12168
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