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> you take away the governmental protections that allow them to have a monopoly and let the market consume them when they refuse to change their shitty business
by _stephan 16y ago
> you take away the governmental protections that allow them to have a monopoly and let the market consume them when they refuse to change their shitty business practices.
How is that supposed to work? Have you ever heard of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly
- nazgulnarsil 16y agono examples exist. the wikipedia example is terrible. epidemics were caused by something that had never existed up until that point? (water network) and because profit margins were too low? so you're going to tell me that a lack of running water caused widespread DEATH AND PESTILENCE and people still were going "nah, I think I'll wait for those water bills to drop some more"?
- _stephan 16y agoMy point was that in certain markets unregulated competition will naturally lead to a monopoly. The technical term for this in microeconomics is "natural monopoly", and the explanation at the beginning of the Wikipedia article is actually pretty good. Without regulation monopolists can prevent the market entry of competitors and can extract excessive profits from consumers, to the detriment of society as a whole.
- nazgulnarsil 16y agoagain please point to a single example of this happening ever.