From: hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phill Hallam-Baker)
Subject: Re: "New Right" Libertarians?
Reply-To: Hallam@zeus02.desy.de
Organization: Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Experiment ZEUS bei HERA
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 23:26:26 GMT

In article <robc.24.0@wicat>, robc@wicat (Rob Carlson) writes:

|>In article <1993Jan12.024806.9366@pony.Ingres.COM> garrett@Ingres.COM (WHEN
|>ALL ELSE FAILS, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS) writes:
|>>From: garrett@Ingres.COM (WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS)
|>>Subject: Re: "New Right" Libertarians?
|>>Summary: Rockefeller  
|>>Keywords: 
|>>Date: 12 Jan 93 02:48:06 GMT
|>>In article <robc.18.0@wicat>, robc@wicat (Rob Carlson)                       
|>writes...
|>>>In article <1993Jan11.065529.27080@s1.gov> lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
|>writes:
|>>>>From: lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
|>>>>Subject: Re: "New Right" Libertarians?
|>>>>Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 06:55:29 GMT
|>>>>In article <robc.16.0@wicat> robc@wicat (Rob Carlson) writes:
|>>>>>In article <C0nIDp.oy@dscomsa.desy.de> hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phill
|>Hallam-Baker) writes:
|>>>>>	The only situation under which your scenario could be achieved is by 
|>>>>>force. Like some government making a law that says you may only work for 
|>>>>>that employer and cannot form any business of your own.
|>>>>
|>>>>	Or when other companies lock you out, for example.
|>>> 
|>>>	It will take force (i.e. government) for them to accomplish this.
|>>> 
|>>Or you could try Rockefeller's method. Which was to pay the railroad's
|>>to charge his competition much higher rates and drive them out of the
|>>business becuase they couldn't get their product to market.
|>
|>	I don't know how true this is, but I have no reason to doubt you so 
|>I will assume it is true that he tried it. But this method will simply not 
|>work. Rockefeller would have to increase his operating costs higher than his 
|>competition. This would make him vulnerable in the long run. Products were 
|>moved to market long before railroads were invented and a number of 
|>alternative methods have been devised since the advent of the railroad.

You obviously have never run a large monopoly.

The key fact that allows a major monopoly to function is selective pricing.
Whenever competition occurs in one area you sell cheap, loose money if you have
to but hold onto market share and drive the competitor out of business. You
finance the small loss in fighting the competitor from the monopoly profits from
other areas where you face no competiton.

This is why NCR used to run second hand cash register companies that bought and
sold machines at a loss, it drove the competition out of business. The guy who
ran the scam was J.R.Watson and he was sentenced to six months jail for it. He
never served it (was let off) and went on to form IBM.

|>	At the other end, their would be a great market for transportation 
|>services. It wouldn't be hard to undercut the current providers prices since 
|>they are artificially high. The railroad that is being subsidized would have 
|>the choice of being locked to one customer or lowering its prices to avoid 
|>giving the competition an advantage and its former customers.

You are assuming of course that the corrupt money behind Standard oil had no
hand in the running of the railroads.

Consider the problem the mafia had in investing the profits they made during
prohibition, then you can understand the industrial history of the USA.


Just recently BA admitted that they ran a dirty tricks campaign against Virgin
ariways, a one plane company. They intended to run him out of business for the
same reason they ran Freddy Laker out of business, they wanted to prevent the
small fry from getting big.

The free market argument that monopolies are impossible is like the proof that
the world is flat, it is disproven by observation.

--

Phill Hallam-Baker
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.perot