A monopoly is a Govt grant of privilege to a business restricting the entry of competitors. Consequently, in a free market there can be no monopolies.
Warm regards, Michael
Dear All;
A prime example of the government monopolies being PUC's for electricity or energy gad and electric and telephone or the government monolith known as the TVA - even though it was supposed to go to"private" ownership.
Just look at what happens when electricity goes out and how long it takes for the electric company anyhwere to get it back on. Or the electric company being"forced" to help extremely low income people by not completely shutting off their electricyt in parts of the NW where extreme cold has hit although this still hasn't stopped a person or two from actually dying in their home from hypothermia.
Yes this is documented.
Ron Getty - SF Libertarian
Hostis res Publica
Morte ai Tiranni
Dum Spiro, Pugno
Sometimes there are physical difficulties, such as in water distribution, electric distribution, or temporary network advantages, such as microsofts near hegemony that is now under attack by the market in shareware and groupware, especially UNIX. . Of course these natural physical problems are often overlayed by ggovernment "regulation" that maintains the monopoly status. Thus it is difficult to say for certain that there actually exist the possibility of real as opposed to fiat monopololies. Admitting the possibilities in certain problematic areas may opem the discussion to more listeners.