Conglomerates

I felt kind of confused by the idea of conglomerates after discussing it in class earlier this week. I understand what a conglomerate is. It is a large oversight company, but some of the other ideas, such as vertical integration and synergy were kind of confusing to me. Then, I was sick on Thursday, this pass week, so I didn't get to attend class, which made me even more confused! I borrowed Ashley's notes. She explained to me that there was a debate in class over the idea of weather conglomerates were good or bad. After reading these notes and doing the reading, I feel much more confident about conglomerates. I do feel that conglomerates have many good and bad effects, and to be honest, I don’t think I know enough to make a choice at this point, but I am aware of their effects. I realize that conglomerates are huge, successful, corporations that have made their way to the top. They provide us with many pleasures, such as TV and radio, which at the same time, contain many harms. I look at Disney and all its success and how enormous it is, and think about how many people it effects. This is so crazy to think about…just how huge Disney is and how everyone knows about it! And it continues to grow today. The idea of conglomerates is hard to wrap my mind around- just how huge and powerful they really are, which is really kind of scary. I am not so sure that we want conglomerates to have so much power over our society if we look at the bad effects that TV has on people and is how greatly it is effecting generations of today. I am excited to explore much more about this idea of conglomerates and the effects they have on society and to understand ideas such as synergy and vertical integration better.