From: learn@speedy.acns.nwu.edu (William J. Vajk)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Our Moderator and Monopolies
Date: 22 Aug 92 12:42:58 GMT
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 651, Message 3 of 7

> [Moderator's Note: By 'legal, lawfully maintained monopolies', I did
> NOT mean monopolies started by or protected by the government. I meant
> those monopolies which got that way through the hard work, effort and
> brains of the company founder, and which continue to remain a monopoly
> despite *completely obeying the law*. In other words, I supported AT&T
> intact before the breakup and Standard Oil before it was divested at
> the turn of the century. I do not support gangsters who maintain a
> 'monopoly' by force, threats and violence.  I agree, the free market
> should be the only consideration.  PAT]

Then you fail to understand the essential nature of the beast.

Rockefeller was removed from the state of Texas under court edict that
he never return under penalty of death. The same court mandated that
Standard Oil never ever be permitted to do business in the state of
Texas again. Thus it was that Humble Oil, the longtime holding company
for ESSO (now known as EXXON) did business in Texas. Even the name
change in the 1960's from ESSO to EXXON was part of the remaining
business of the Standard Oil divestiture as both the Standard Oil of
New Jersey (Eastern Shore Standard Oil) as well as Standard Oil of
Indiana (AMOCO) insisted that they had a right to the Standard Oil
name.

What you REALLY fail to understand, Pat, is that your statement above
equates to saying you support bullies so long as they don't maintain
being a bully by force, threats, or violence.

Big business invariably becomes big through the very means which you
decry.  Each of the oldtime largest corporations in this country grew
using underhanded means, and has been steadily shrinking since we, as
a nation, have taken care that our businessmen remain businessmen, no
longer accepting thuggishness as an ordinary business tactic. The
railroads have shrunk to the competition from airlines and trucks.
AT&T is shrinking and is headed for demise based on their internal
failures to become efficient in a competitive marketplace (it will
take quite a while ... they have so much money and momentum.) There
was a time when Standard Oil (meaning EXXON) was in contention for the
world's largest corporation. There was a time when RCA was thought to
be untouchable (yet has been "raided".)

Each of these three firms, in their heyday of growth, had a propensity
to resolve issues in some rather "not so very nice" ways. But in those
times, judges were more understanding, and many of our modern day laws
to prevent corporate activities of questional moral and ethical value
were not in place.  Corporate shields protected individuals from
responsibility for their actions.

Either one accepts the modern view that robber barons did bad things
which would probably make them into ordinary criminals today, or one
suports the sort of actions which built what was euphamisticaly called
"a natural monopoly" by those quite willing to rape the economy and
the public at large.

What's wrong with the implication that a clever businessman can
improve his firm's standing by cleverness is that there are plenty of
other clever businessmen out there, all ready to jump in and take part
of the pie. The only thing which permits untoward growth by one to the
exclusion of others in any marketplace is the exclusion of others by
some means. My personal conclusion, in concert with many other people
I've discussed this with over the years, is that some underhanded
tactic, perhaps chargable though undetected, is at work in all cases
where one company completely outdistances all others in a given
business segment.

"Natural monopolies" simply aren't.


Bill Vajk


[Moderator's Note: How curious to see you are still reading the
Digest, Bill.  I thought you had given up on me long ago.  PAT]