[Copernicus]

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The bad sort of monopoly isn't achieved by undercutting or making a better product, it's achieved by buying up all other providers of that product and then price gouging. This is a hobby of mine in the World of Warcraft auction house.

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Luckily it doesn't work in the real world. "Predatory pricing" is the Unicorn of economics. There's a lot of mythology written about it, but nobody has ever observed it.

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As part of an economics assignment in college, I looked at an Australian Senate report into the Australian supermarket industry. One of the things it looked at was the behavior of supermarket chains in rural areas. The large chains - there are only really three in Australia - would set up shop, and charge city prices for goods, which was below cost once transport was factored in, especially for fruit&veg. This would drive many of the existing small stores out of business. A year of so later, pricing would be consistent with that in other country areas (significantly higher than the city prices they were first charging).

Isn't this exactly predatory pricing?

Now I agree that in an area with a large population and a large of capital and entrepreneurship, predatory pricing of many goods and services would not be viable. Economics 101. Duh. But many areas and situations don't fall under the freshman economic assumptions you REQUIRE to be true in order to make many of your claims.

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Of course...and when you find an example the answer will be "oh that didnt have predatory intent"