Monopoly and Competition

Presented at Mises University 2019.

Presented at Mises University 2019.

Natural constraints on firm size are numerous, and in a truly free market, large firms would be constantly prone to being broken up and put out of business by competition. And all to often, huge firms become more long-lived due to government intervention.

There is almost no economic problem, real or imagined, that cannot be made worse by inappropriate government regulation. Antitrust is no exception.

Competition and cooperation and not two things in conflict. They are both essential ingredients in a society based on voluntary action instead of violence.

Throughout American history, politicians have incessantly awarded preferential policies (e.g., “corporate welfare”) to special interests that has allowed them to create monopolies dominating virtually every major market.

Competition is a process of the formation of opinion: by spreading information, it creates that unity and coherence of the economic system which we presuppose when we think of it as one market.

For many years in London, firefighting was provided privately by insurance companies. Oddly enough, the Americans rejected this model for the far-more-politicized fire department model we know today.

In their war on "monopolies," Progressives like Elizabeth Warren show they don't understand the history of anti-monopoly legislation, and they also don't understand that modern day "monopolies" aren't really monopolies at all.

Whether or not anti-trust legislation remains helpful to consumers, or makes any economic sense, remains entirely debatable.