Capitalism and monopolism

[Adam Back]

The RIAA execesses are bad, but my point is that government is worse:
imagine what the government could do to the music industry if it
converted it into a state-run monopoly.  What is worse about
governments is that they are not even optimized for profitability (of
the economy as a whole, viz 50%+ marginal tax rates with most of the
proceeds burnt off with no retained value for anyone).  Also virtual
monopolies on the business side are not monopolies in the same way
that government is: you can buy independent music, you can not buy
music distributed by the most abusive distributors etc.

Adam

On Mon, May 05, 2003 at 10:42:07PM -0700, Bill Frantz wrote:
> At 3:17 PM -0700 5/4/03, Adam Back wrote:
> >As to virtual monopolies being worse than government: I disagree
> >businesses aim to maximise profit margin and this places a limit on
> >the depths of unethical and bad for the individual behavior they can
> >do.  They won't do it becaues it's not profitable: unhappy customers
> >are not good business.
> 
> Remind me how this relates to the relations between the RIAA, the people
> who write/perform music, and the people who listen.