From: robc@wicat (Rob Carlson)
Subject: Re: Libertarianism...
Organization: Jostens Learning Corp
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 18:16:46 GMT

In article <1993Jan11.074622.27724@s1.gov> lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich) writes:
>From: lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
>Subject: Re: Libertarianism...
>Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 07:46:22 GMT
>In article <robc.17.0@wicat> robc@wicat (Rob Carlson) writes:
>>In article <C0nwxF.2GI@dscomsa.desy.de> hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phill Hallam-Baker) writes:
>: So what, capitalism has very little to do with free markets. The unregulated
>: free market quickly becomes a monopoly.
>
>>	I'll need further illumination on this argument. It seems to me that 
>>a monopoly is impossible in a free market. There is absolutely nothing to 
>>prevent another company from competing with the one attempting to be a 
>>monopoly. To obtain a monopoly you will need to get a government to write 
>>laws and regulations that keeps others out of the market. It seems that the 
>>regulated market is the one that causes monopolies. It is always interesting 
>>that more regulation is the usual prescription for the failings of a
>>regulatory policy.
>
>	Monopolies can arouse by other routes than government
>intervention.
>
>	One is by controlling all sources or the only source of some
>natural resource. Thus, a company that owns all the oil wells in some
>particular area monopolizes the oil production in that area. True,
>this type of monopoly is vulnerable to (say) some rival company
>discovering oil elsewhere, but if no rival company can, then the
>company gets away with it unless some government decrees that it be
>broken up or nationalized.

	Again, you are using implausible situations and even showing them to 
be so. This type of company is not only vulnerable to new dicoveries, it is 
also vulnerable to new technologies. If, say OPEC, attempts to control the 
oil market and keep prices artificially high, someone will come up with a 
way to get oil from shale. Which is exactly what happened in the late 70' - 
early 80's. You might also keep in mind that oil prices have a minimum price 
by law. A service station owner will be shutdown for selling gas below the 
lawful price. Government intervention again causing artificially high prices.

>
>	Another is by squeezing rival companies out of business by
>price wars and corporate acquisitions. In California in the late 19th
>cy., the Southern Pacific railroad company used that tactic to make
>itself a monopoly in much of California, by buying up rail lines,
>ferry services, etc. It received an abundance of criticism over
>exorbitant freight rates and slow passenger trains (one newspaper
>grumbled that its passengers risked senility on its trains). The SP
>was ultimately less than successful, because other rail lines, such as
>the Western Pacific and the Santa Fe, were eventually built into
>California.

	Exactly. When SP attempted to build a monopoly they were overrun by 
competitors. Of course today the govt. would step in and deny the other 
companies because the SP workers would be out of work. Once again a govt 
would be necessry to enforce this monopoly.

>
>	So scapegoating government won't lead anywhere.

	I will say again, government is a tool of the rich wielded against 
the poor and justified by the horrors of the rich.

>-- 
>/Loren Petrich, the Master Blaster
>/lip@s1.gov

Rob Carlson