Buy local, fight monopolies

All of us are wondering whether we will get COVID-19 and, if we do, whether we'll survive. A commentator recently wondered if the only retailers to survive the pandemic will be Walmart, Amazon and Costco. They would then have monopoly power to jack up prices and pay low wages with poor or even dangerous working conditions. Amazon's Bezos just fired two employees who protested the dangerous working conditions there without adequate protections.

It is now so easy for us to order almost anything we want online. Yet if we continue down this path, we will lose our local and small businesses and, thereby, some of our freedom.

History tells us that monopolies tend to increase prices once they realize they can without penalty. Who would stop them?

We Americans should buy local and from small businesses. We should vote with our dollars to help keep America free.

Dan Bailey

Wheaton