Why is Star Wars an Analogy for a Monopoly - Christian Callaghan

 Monopolies are a scary part of today's reality, with many parts of the world relying on capitalist economies to run - monopolies are not disappearing anytime soon. A monopoly is "the exclusive possession or control of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service". At first glance the idea of a monopoly can be seen as a complex idea but an easy analogy for this is the Star Wars universe. 

The identifiable characteristics for this are the empire which works as the monopoly in our analogy and the rebellion which works as the smaller companies in the surrounding area. The empire controls the galaxy due to their overwhelming amount of power and resources that they have at their disposal. While the rebels are a much smaller organization but are filled with many different parts and have significantly less resources. 

In the movie Star Wars, the rebellion was able to overthrow the empire as they banded together, and all worked to become a more powerful force. In an ideal society all the smaller companies would be able to come together and attract more attention that the larger companies. However, we do not live in an ideal society. The capitalist values assure that this will not happen or will likely never happen as due to the fact that the larger companies will almost always be cheaper and more efficient. 

At the end of the day the empire Strikes Back and wins yet again by being the more overwhelming force with the greater amount of funds and reach. The only hope now for the republic would be for the government to step in and often that does not help seeing as the bigger companies can often prove that there is plenty of competition.

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