Thiel's point is actually more nuanced. Monopolies undeniably give customers worse service on the margin. But, all that profit in one location lets you do thi

Thiel's point is actually more nuanced. Monopolies undeniably give customers worse service on the margin. But, all that profit in one location lets you do things---important, good things---that you couldn't do without that obscene concentration of money. Bell Labs came from AT&T. Google X from Google. The moon landing from (double-ocean-protected) USA. Japan and S. Korea have a few very large companies that have de facto monopolies protected by their governments, and they're not shitholes. This is worth a read: http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue23/Locke23.htm http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue23/Locke23.htm