3 ms·

The quintessential example is railroads, but also most utility providers (electricity, water, natural gas). Toll Roads / Bridges (often the substitutes are not

by voisin 4y ago

The quintessential example is railroads, but also most utility providers (electricity, water, natural gas). Toll Roads / Bridges (often the substitutes are not good alternatives). Telecoms (to a lesser degree and declining thanks to the entry of new substitutes).

WalterBright 4y ago
Except that railroads compete with each other, and with all the other forms of transportation. Telecoms only had a monopoly when the government enforced it (long distance AT&T). Phone companies often had local monopolies because cities would enforce them. People can (and did) build more roads and bridges if someone was charging monopoly rents.
- voisin 4y ago
  Natural monopoly != zero competition. I’d recommend you read this for more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    Yeah, I've read it. Didn't find it compelling.
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32762714 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32762714
dredmorbius 4y ago
What I've come to find an interesting element of monopolies is that virtually all that I can think of seem to be fundamentally networked entities. That might be physical (railroads, utilities, communications, broadcast) or logical (marketing, wholesale, retail), and might involve edges/links (rail, comms), vertices/nodes (ports, datacentres), or quite often a mix of both. All tend to see some large realm over which there is an increasing return to scale (if there weren't, monopolies wouldn't form), and quite often a single entity may be established over multiple networks or modalities (e.g, Google controlling search, online advertising, and Web browser development). I've been hard pressed to come up with examples of monopolies which aren't describable as networks, though that description may not at first be obvious. Non-government-sanctioned monopolies exist as (illegal) drugs cartels, criminal syndicates, and warlord hierarchies, in which growth and maintenance of the network is typically obtained through direct (and non-legally sanctioned) force of arms, coercion, or intimidation.

by voisin 4y ago

WalterBright 4y ago

Except that railroads compete with each other, and with all the other forms of transportation. Telecoms only had a monopoly when the government enforced it (long distance AT&T). Phone companies often had local monopolies because cities would enforce them. People can (and did) build more roads and bridges if someone was charging monopoly rents.

voisin 4y ago
Natural monopoly != zero competition. I’d recommend you read this for more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly
- WalterBright 4y ago
  Yeah, I've read it. Didn't find it compelling.
dredmorbius 4y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32762714 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32762714

dredmorbius 4y ago

What I've come to find an interesting element of monopolies is that virtually all that I can think of seem to be fundamentally networked entities. That might be physical (railroads, utilities, communications, broadcast) or logical (marketing, wholesale, retail), and might involve edges/links (rail, comms), vertices/nodes (ports, datacentres), or quite often a mix of both. All tend to see some large realm over which there is an increasing return to scale (if there weren't, monopolies wouldn't form), and quite often a single entity may be established over multiple networks or modalities (e.g, Google controlling search, online advertising, and Web browser development). I've been hard pressed to come up with examples of monopolies which aren't describable as networks, though that description may not at first be obvious. Non-government-sanctioned monopolies exist as (illegal) drugs cartels, criminal syndicates, and warlord hierarchies, in which growth and maintenance of the network is typically obtained through direct (and non-legally sanctioned) force of arms, coercion, or intimidation.