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[...] everyone knows a monopoly is bad [...] I don't think that is true. Neither does everybody know that a monopoly is bad, nor, and more importantly, is a mo
by danbruc 10y ago
[...] everyone knows a monopoly is bad [...]
I don't think that is true. Neither does everybody know that a monopoly is bad, nor, and more importantly, is a monopoly inherently bad. Take for example the monopoly on violence. And even if you want to restrict the meaning to monopolies in the economic sense, even then is a monopoly not inherently bad. It only becomes so if its powers are abused. Sometimes having competition will increase the total costs, think for example of having five competing power distribution networks. In such cases it may be a better choice to have a monopoly and regulated it to prevent its abuse instead of having competition.
- Mathnerd314 10y agoRight, your average American don't "know" a monopoly is bad. In general they won't "know" anything about the subject. But, from their grade school American history class, they probably have some vague recollection of the anti-trust laws passed in the early 1900's to break up the "Robber Barons" or "Titans of Industry", and the corresponding "even rich people aren't above the law" sentiment. So if you say "copyright monopoly" they won't dismiss the need for legislative reform out of hand. Whereas if you use terminology like "legalize piracy" they probably will. A natural monopoly would be associated with a public utility; probably the various libraries. An electronic library might become a public utility, but so far Spotify, Netflix, etc. have had incomplete catalogs and there's not much support for the compulsory licensing scheme they'd need to make it work (which would be its own public service...)