Benefits are not static. What's good in the short term, doesn't necessarily mean it's good long term. Following the capitalistic ethos, once you have less compe

Benefits are not static. What's good in the short term, doesn't necessarily mean it's good long term. Following the capitalistic ethos, once you have less competition, you can raise your price to match what the customer can afford (which is not competitive, it's exploitative) as opposed to what the market will bear (because there is no market, just a limited or singular purveyor). This is economics 101 stuff. China survives this by government control and investment in the monopolistic companies and ignores IP, allowing small companies to have opportunity to make knock-offs and creating limited theater attrition. When these companies start being noticed (either profit impacts or potential efficiency improvement opportunities, whatever), they are either purchased into the fold or forced out of business by governmental mandate. The US is not unique, but it's also not as free, for reasons that people don't point out very often...ie the draconian enforcement of IP is multi-edged.