Monopolies stamp out competition, resulting in less innovation. You might instead ask if society was better off before the invention of the teenager. That was

Monopolies stamp out competition, resulting in less innovation. You might instead ask if society was better off before the invention of the teenager. That was emblematic of the shift toward short-term-profit-driven thinking we now call neoliberalism. That economic philosophy also happens to stifle innovation of the Bell Labs type by not financing long term projects. Today monopolies exist in spirit if not in technicality. Does society benefit? I'd say that looking back longingly at Bell Labs means no, it doesn't.