- Capitalism and Alternatives -

...for reasons unrelated to monopoly, however

Posted by: Samuel Day Fassbinder ( Citizens for Mustard Greens, USA ) on March 29, 1999 at 15:39:32:

In Reply to: Standard oil *wouldn't* have controlled the market for all eternity. posted by R. Jenkins on March 24, 1999 at 10:33:04:

: 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.

SDF: Actually Standard Oil was losing its market share by the time it was dissolved, though this was for a reason quite irrelevant to the debate about monopoly per se; at that time, in the 1910s, explorers were discovering oil faster than Standard Oil could locally undercut small oil producers and drive potential new competitors out of business. I really doubt that that sort of thing going to happen again in human history.

: 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.

SDF: Property law will be enough, thank you.



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