Deregulation increases the chance monopolies will form

Thanks to my opponent. The 1st point that Pro failed to understand in the forums, because existing theory on monopolies states that a monopoly is only formed when product demand is ELASTIC, was my contention is exactly the opposite of this in natural resource markets.The typical monopoly would be something like the iPod, or Windows-based PC. Both have competitors, sure, but they so dominate their respective markets that they control nearly every aspect of it. This set-up works, to a certain extent, in these industries, however, because of the speed at which products become obsolete. These companies may not have any real competition right this moment, but the moment they fail to innovate, there is someone waiting to devour their market share.This is in contrast to a product like Kleenex or Q-tips, who also face competition in the form of tissues and cotton swabs from other manufacturers, but innovation in these products is barely necessary over time, and so these products not only control the market, but they have become synonymous with the overall product, itself.Those are the kinds of markets economists traditionally expect to see form into a monopoly, and as long as the firms who manufacture these products don’t exhibit notorious and obvious predatory monopolistic practices, as Microsoft was accused of with their bundling of Internet Explorer and Windows, most economists don’t have a problem with these kind of monopolies.What I’m talking about are totally different animals. I’m talking about natural resources with inelastic demand curves such that:1. Large increases in price have little effect on quantity.2. They are finite and non-renewable, or can be made to be this way,3. Not only will they lead to monopolies, but they will lead to predatory monopolies and profits will never normalize as is predicted with elastic monopolies, because the resource continues to grow in scarcity and is gone before the normalization process has a chance to occur; orWith these goods, when there is a lack of regulation in the market, monopolies/oligopolies form, and they do so in the most vicious, predatory fashion. For Instance...Example #1OilA sovereign entity can make regulations within its own borders, but no one has the power to regulate the entire world at this point. Oil producers exist the world over, so the world market for oil is completely unregulated.How is this industry organized?A cartel of the 6 most prolific oil producing countries, which currently stands as a group of 12 oil producing nations, formed and began controlling the price of oil by manipulating world production levels.Now, Con has argued elsewhere that consumers, and their demand, are what sets a price. This is simply false (at least half so). Today, near my home, gas is at ~$3.27/gallon. Now, I understand that refining capacity has more to do with the price of gasoline than oil prices do, but oil prices are certainly a component, so let’s say that supply was stifled by OPEC such that gasoline in my neighborhood shot to $5/gallon.What would be the effect on quantity consumed?Well, the real price of gas has risen from ~$1.75/gallon in 1995 to ~$3.50 today (guess I’m lucky) [1]This is nearly the perfect $1.73 needed near my home to help us determine what would happen to gas consumption should gas rise to $5/gallon near my home.In this same period, U.S. consumption of gas has risen from around 7.5 million barrels per day to 9.0 million barrels per day[2]Perhaps you find yourself thinking, “so what? That was over a period of 20 years..”First of all, the bulk of the price increases happened between 2003 and 2008[1].And real median income? It’s gone from $22,000 to $26,000 per year during that same time[3].To sum up:a. The world market for oil is largely, if not completely, unregulated.b. The oil market is dominated by a price-fixing oligopoly (close enough...OPEC would be a single nation monopoly if it could be)c. Even in a country like The U.S., which gets little of its oil from OPEC nations, we feel the effects of this oligopoly’s price manipulation in just the same way that countries who receive almost all of their oil from OPEC nations, because as a market oligopoly, OPEC can set nearly whatever price it chooses (we produce the majority of our own oil, with Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, and, occasionally, Saudi Arabia picking up the slack).Ergono regulation = monopolyExample #2For a sushi lover, as well as a chef, there is no fish more important than Bluefin Tuna, or as it is known to the Japanese, Toro.On days when there aren’t a great many bluefin that make it to market, some bluefin tuna can be auctioned off for nearly $200,000[4].Bluefin is actually a generic name for 4 species of fish [5] which are found in waters the world over, though mostly in the waters of the Pacific Ocean and other bodies of water located chiefly in the Western Hemisphere.Unfortunately for the bluefin, they don’t stick to the waters of any one country, or any country at all, as most are found in the deep ocean considered “international waters”, and in this unregulated free-for-all fishing industry, Mitsubishi is purposefully fishing the bluefin to extinction[6].Why would they do this? Well, they have several warehouses which freeze these fish to -60C, and a bluefin frozen at this temperature can be sold decades from now to a Japanese public hungry for this delicacy, when no more exist in the ocean (which is predicted to happen in 2048)[6] and Mitsubishi controls the last of the fish to exist, even in their cryonic death slumber.When this happens, Japanese consumers, who value this fish over all others for sushi, will harken back to the good ol’ days when you could get a belly of toro for $200K, because with their death grip on the market, Mitsubishi will set the price it believes is the absolute maximum it can get based on how much supply is released, and how much supply needs to be released such that they can sell the bulk of what is frozen before it goes bad, and Japanese consumers will eat it up. Literally.To sum up:1. World Bluefin Fishing Market is entirely unregulated.2. The monopoly does not quite exist yet (though, it is close. Mitsubishi controls nearly 50% of bluefin tuna caught each season...and off-season), but it is being prepared to exist.3. By the time the profits for this monopoly even had a chance to think about normalizing, the bluefin will be a distant memory, and the last piece of bluefin sushi, while also the lowest in quality for having been frozen the longest, will also be the most expensive.Personally, I hope I live long enough to see some rich, insane Japanese guy pop a piece of $5 million dollar Nigiri down his pie hole, except it’ll probably be the CEO of Mitsubishi, and it will likely be gratis.Conclusion:Is there any question that in an unregulated, inelastic market where the good is a natural resource, that anything but a monopoly or oligopoly will form?If anyone found my argument to be particularly weak because of how stylized my writing is, I implore that you review my sources which back up my theory quite nicely. Most are charts.Next round, I will examine what happens to natural monopolies which distribute a natural rousource when they go from regulated to unregulated (hint - they don't foster education).Sources[1] http://www.eia.gov...[2] http://www.eia.gov...[3] http://3.bp.blogspot.com...[4]http://www.huffingtonpost.com...[5] http://en.wikipedia.org...[6]http://www.independent.co.uk...