[pvn]

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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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i also just realized that this logic is quite strange.

1) predatory pricing doesn't work in the real world. i know this because predatory pricing has never been observed.

2) regulators around the globe are created and tasked with eliminating monopolies and prevent predatory pricing.

oops...see that. bad logic.

non-observance of predatory pricing cannot be attributed to its inability to work in the real world. in fact, you could just as logically argue that the lack of observance of predatory pricing is the result of the regulatory agencies doing a great job. we should give those guys awards.

in addition, there are instances where the predatory pricing (or predatory actions by would be monopolists) were struck down by regulatory agencies. thus we never observed the predatory pricing, but we did observe something that would have very likely led to it.

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What? The regulators are pre-emptively punishing companies *before* they commit these pricing crimes?

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take microsoft vs. netscape et al. microsoft was barred from its practices by the US regulatory agency. if allowed to continue, do you really think another software company could have even come close to competing with MSFT (given that they would program their world standard operating system to not work with other manufacturer's products?) ? do you think MSFT wouldn't be a monopoly? or not have the ability to price preditorially?

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LOL.

Another company could compete by delivering a product that gave consumers more value for their money, just like in every other industry.

Natural barriers to entry are lower in software than in any other market.

Why should any company be forced to make their products work with anyone else's product?

The microsoft antitrust case is one of the MOST blatant examples of the use of such antitrust legislation as a weapon weilded by politically-connected companies against more successful competitors.