In economics, a well-functioning market is a market where no single actor can manipulate prices all by itself. That's why monopolies (oligopolies - monopsonies)

In economics, a well-functioning market is a market where no single actor can manipulate prices all by itself. That's why monopolies (oligopolies - monopsonies) are fundamentally bad. In some situations where a monopoly makes sense (there is no sense in having 2 autonomous rail systems for instance), typically for infrastructures, there are strong provisions to be applied to keep the monopoly in control. Historically, these monopolies were often simply managed by a publicly-owned company (USPS, or interstate highways, for instance). As I said in another comment, there is no rational way to defend or explain away monopolies. If you're a free-market capitalist, well you want a functioning free market, thus no monopolies. If you're a socialist, you want them publicly-owned and democratically controlled. Large powerful monopolies are a tremendous menace to democracy, simple as that. It's not a question of their CEOs being nice people or not, it's deeply ingrained in the logic of being a monopoly.