> It's unfortunate that the word monopoly is losing it's meaning. Formerly, it meant a business that had an overwhelming or total share of the entire market, Y

> It's unfortunate that the word monopoly is losing it's meaning. Formerly, it meant a business that had an overwhelming or total share of the entire market, You're just describing the most extreme and dysfunctional aspect of a phenomenon that comes in shades of gray. > plus high barriers to entry. That's not exactly a requirement. A sufficiently powerful monopoly can generate its own barriers to entry (e.g. it can use its war chest to lower prices to an uneconomical level to drive a potential competitor out of business, and the threat of that can keep a competitors from even trying). > Now it just means a big business, It means big business that abuses its market share to make even more money due to a lack of real competition. > or the only option in my neighborhood. And those an be a legitimate monopoly, even by your above definition. It's all about how you describe the market. IIRC, in the Grapes of Wrath, there's a company store that's a monopoly, and the proprietor says as much: his prices are unfair, but the transportation cost to shop at another store forces his customers to shop with him.