Stefan MolyneuxVerified account

Are monopolies OK?

“Some monopoly” - seems like a contradiction

What was the movie where the only restaurant was Taco Bell? I love that it took a totalitarian government to make it true. Under any other system dozens would spring up around it.

Nobody needs a water BOTTLE. If your tap water gives you a sore throat then that's a government problem not a business problem.

Except that in the world Stephan wants, the government wouldn't be involved with water quality at all. It's simply not efficient for multiple companies to run parallel water lines from the same source to the same city. Absent government, natural monopolies would form.

Absent government, people would have a choice. If people 98% choose the same provider then that provider is probably leaps and bounds better than what the king's granted monopoly would have given them.

That's not how natural monopolies work; history has already repeatedly shown us this Some industries require government regulation because they cannot have a competitive market; water, natural gas, and power are good examples.

"Requires government" implies there's just no other way, which is how government always tells the tale. It also negates 'natural.' However I am not libertarian and I'm not the best person to advocate for removing control over people who cannot control themselves.

Natural monopolies are natural because the cost of entry into the market is too high to make competition possible. There will never BE competition, and without regulation the costs would go up exponentially until the customers violently revolted.

If you're talking about water, power, or natural gas, those things are necessary to LIVE. They're what we call 'inelastic' in demand. No matter the price, you have to pay it because the alternative is to die of dehydration, or freeze to death, or die of heat-stroke.

So, the government can do one of two thinigs; regulate the price, or take over and provide the infrastructure for delivery and let the market be competition to PROVIDE the resource being transported. Either way, government involvement is required.