"The New Machine" was a very eye-opening documentary on the struggles of entrepreneurs, especially those in positions of massive power. While Henry Ford's rise to power and his company's rise to success is very engaging and worth discussing, the first 15 minutes focusing on monopoly actually piqued my interest a little bit more, so that is what I will focus on for the extent of this paper.
The dynamic between the government and entrepreneurs that the video presented was very fascinating, with the government functioning as almost a rival to entrepreneurs that are operating under a monopolistic industry. The main example provided in the video was John D. Rockefeller's position in the industry of standard oil with a complete monopoly. Under the Roosevelt administration, war was being launched on monopolies in the United States. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and many more were being forced to testify before congress and their monopolies were being broken up fast. Although they did everything in their power to maintain control of their monopolies, the government always wins in the end. Even today, companies such as Amazon are being questioned and will eventually be regulated if they become too powerful or the industry becomes too monopolistic. At first, I thought that it was sort of unfair to the entrepreneur that the government was regulating markets like this, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. In order for the free market to survive and for innovation to thrive, there must be competition.
Consider if Amazon continues to increase its market share to the point where in a decade, they are the only major company that you can buy things from online. This would mean that they could simply jack up the prices and no one could do anything about it. Especially in an industry such as online shopping, where the barrier to entry is pretty high, it would be very difficult for any competitor to provide an alternative to consumers. Not only could they increase prices, but they could also slow down the delivery speed, decrease the quality of products, etc. Without competition, there is no motivation to keep the quality sound and keep the customers happy, much less to innovate and improve upon yourself constantly, as companies currently must do to survive.
Lack of improvement and innovation is bad enough, but consider this, price in the current free market is determined by consumers, not the producers. In "The Seen, The Unseen, and The Unrealized" we are often told that price is derived from demand and what consumers want, but when there is a monopoly in a certain industry, producers can simply make the price whatever they want, which has negative effects on consumers.
This is the role of government with respect to entrepreneurship. They must determine when to intervene and when to let a market figure itself out. Monopoly is bad, but too much regulation is also bad. It is a very fine line and to watch our modern government attempt it with Amazon and other companies in the next few decades will be fascinating. "The New Machine" does a great job of laying out this dilemma for us and the EEE-2083 class really helps us to understand its effects on society writ large.
Works Cited
BYLUND, PER L. Seen, the Unseen, and the Unrealized: How Regulations Affect Our Everyday Lives. LEXINGTON Books, 2018.
historychannel. “How Henry Ford Invented the Model T | the Men Who Built America (S1, E8) | Full Episode.” YouTube, YouTube, 30 May 2022, 
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