Bernie,
I personally don't consider a monopoly
to be necessarily bad. The issue to me is how they
conduct themselves as a monopoly. There are good
monoplies that are not abusive in their position as a
monopoly. Bell telephone was an example of a good monopoly.
Their breakup years ago wasn't necessarily a good thing
for the consumer. We have the techonology we do today
becuase of the phone companies monopoly which allowed them
to pour money into research in Bell Labs which brought us
the transistor. Where would we be without that?
Unfortunately, by the time most of us
hear about a monopoly they have done something "morally"
or "ethically" incorrect. Using a monopoly for unfair
advantage seems to raise everyone's neck hair. If a
business has the foresight to seize a market and capitalize
on it before anyone else does and spends the time and money
to do so, that just seems to be the way of business. If
another business attempts to break into the same market in
direct competition with the already exising company, no
harm done. The new startup has to realize they are
competing with an already exisiting "giant". A giant that
already has an advantage based on it's head start. If the
little guy can improve or compete with the giant based on
superior product then all well and good. But if that
"giant" uses it's monopolistic position to stamp out the
"little guy" because they feel threatened by their
superior product then that is when I feel a monopoly is a
bad thing. Competition is a good thing. Business thrives
on competition. It needs to be allowed to thrive without
unfair intervention by a monopoly. After all, the better
product should win regardless of who gets stepped on.
Should we have protected the horse and buggy companies when
automobiles began to appear on the scene?
On Sat, 7 Jul 2001 20:51:21 -0400 Bernie Corrigan
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Since it's a slow day on the list server here's a question for discussion:
>
> Certain industries, by their very nature, are thought to need to be
> monopolies. The compromise to keep them from getting totally out of control
> is "regulation." Their prices are controlled and any increases must be
> approved...
>
> Has the Windows operating system become a public utility now that it has
> been found to be a monopoly and if so, should it be regulated and if so, how
> is it to be regulated?
>
----------------------
Bob Powell
The Hotchkiss School
Lakeville, Connecticut
Systems Administrator
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
