- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Standard oil *wouldn't* have controlled the market for all eternity.

Posted by: R. Jenkins ( USA ) on March 24, 1999 at 10:33:04:

In Reply to: A footnote posted by Samuel Day Fassbinder on March 23, 1999 at 11:05:52:

:
: : A monopoly means that you have exclusive rights to a product that is in limited supply. Standard Oil didn't control the market for all eternity,

: SDF: Yes of course, Standard Oil was dissolved by enforcement of the 1907 Sherman Anti-Trust Act, i.e. by government intervention, intervention intended to preserve the fiction of market competition against the threat of monopoly, so you can stop trying to fool people into thinking that Standard Oil dissolved itself naturally... I thought you were going to back up your statement that all monopolies were "controled (sic) by the state"... are you going back on what you said?

You have to reply to the entire argument, otherwise we will be stting up straw men and knocking them down. I later stated that Standard Oil would have been dissolved without intervention, though a better way to frase that first statement is: Standard oil *wouldn't* have controlled the market for all eternity.

On the point you want to discuss: The only way for a company or anythin else to have EXCLUSIVE rights to something would be to back it with laws, something only the government can do.


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