Interesting article, titled “Why the merger between Kroger and Albertsons was blocked by federal and state courts,” published in Summit Daily News online on March 3.

Why don’t these same principles apply to the ski industry? In many other parts of the world, large ski resorts have multiple ski schools and restaurants competing against each other. This results in better quality on mountain food, lower ski lesson prices, higher instructor wages, more ski lessons being taken and improved mountain safety.

If competition is a good thing, why does the U.S. Forest Service only issue a single permit to operate restaurants and ski schools on government owned land in Eagle County? Summit County isn’t much better.

It seems very hypocritical that the government would obstruct companies from merging for anticompetitive reasons on private property while prohibiting competition that would benefit taxpayers on government-owned land.