Jim Choate claims that free markets are routinely overrun by monopolies. I say this is nonsense. At 03:51 PM 10/4/98 -0500, Jim Choate wrote:
But I'd certaily entertain any evidence you may want to present to your case.
How can anyone present evidence when except for Microsoft you have not named a single company that alleged became a monopoly, and you have been vague about the markets that these companies allegedly monopolized, and the periods during which these markets were monpolized. It is as if you were claiming that giant monsters frequently terrorized US cities. Unless you make a specific allegation, no refutation is possible or necessary. For example if you were to claim that King Kong demolished the empire state building, then someone could point out that the empire state building still stands. A simple explanation for your inability to name any specific giant monsters, or any particular places and times where these giant monsters were rampaging, is that these giant monsters do not exist, and never have existed.
Examples please where a small firm dukes it out (sic) on equal terms with a larger one...
MacDonalds vs Burger King. Hertz vs Avis. Mastercard vs Visa. And of course, the biggest mismatch of them all Microsoft vs Linux.
You mistake the political adventures of your local elite for universal laws.
What country produces shoes as a function of government agency and prevents private shoe production?
I must admit I nearly hurt myself laughing at this one.
Holland used to do this on the grounds that shoes were a vital necessity, and if the market was left to private enterprise some people would go shoeless.
A 'natural' monoploy, to my mind, is a company that operates in an industry that can be saturated. By saturation I mean that the demand of the market can be met by a small number (approaching 1 if left unregulated over time, usualy by by-outs or business experation) of manufacturers.
There is no empirical evidence that any natural monopolies exist.
The VCR industry is a great example of a 'natural' monopoly. Only a few years ago *every* VCR mechanism on the planet was made by one of 5 companies and with the cessation of Curtis-Williams, not one of them was a US company.
This does not make the VCR business a monopoly. It would only be a monopoly if the existing players were free to raise prices. Manifestly the market for the mechanism of the VCR has become a commodity market, in which profit margins are extremely low. The same is true of the aluminium market, where you have all aluminium smelted by a single provider. There is nothing to stop anyone else from going into the business, but because the profit margins are razor thin, nobody bothers. Although there is only a single company, it is not a monopoly because if they expanded their very thin proft margins by the slightest degree, other people would promptly eat their lunch. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG oa82+HWPHe6y441fIArVLbuu3EwwEh2ZOS4Pi3jk 4Lscjd2dJEP8tQjtxX0+5pcrFhvS7G3mJz67hoycC ----------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state. http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ James A. Donald