You're talking about government-granted monopolies. Those aren't the only monopolies around - there are also: 1) natural monopolies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wi

You're talking about government-granted monopolies. Those aren't the only monopolies around - there are also: 1) natural monopolies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly 2) monopolies (or oligopolies) that happen due to anti-competitive strategies, such as controlling supply and demand through price fixing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing