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I think I might go so far as to say I don't really think either of you know what you are talking about. Monopolies are created by barriers to entry into a marke

I think I might go so far as to say I don't really think either of you know what you are talking about. Monopolies are created by barriers to entry into a market, this can include things like state regulation, but also things like intellectual property, and capital. Monopolies distort the market, but are not always net negative. Perhaps a good example are silicon wafer manufactures (technically an oligopoly, but the same arguments apply). Because the startup cost for silicon manufacturing is so high, and the infrastructure takes time to build, supply does not have to, and regularly does not match demand (bad). That said, the scales of economy involved with allowing a single company to produce so much silicon in this case makes that trade off well worth it. I think it's silly when people use monopoly as a synonym for bad. Sometimes monopolies make sense.

joshuapants 11y ago
> I think it's silly when people use monopoly as a synonym for bad. Sometimes monopolies make sense. Theodore Roosevelt's policy on monopolies was pretty much this. Monopolies that provided good service at reasonable prices were left alone, those that abused their power were attacked.
vegancap 11y ago
I agree that sometimes monopolies makes sense, and that they're not all bad. So long as they're do through voluntary, customer means, then sure. I mentioned in another response further up that, sometimes a company will provide services so well that they create a 'market satisfaction' whereby there'd by no point competing because consumers aren't looking for an alternative so there'd be little point. I think Google (before the privacy concerns were raised) were an example of that.