Are monopolies actually a good thing?

[moorobot]

[ QUOTE ]

I guess the point im trying to make is that a lot of people (not me) think the total opposite of what DiLorenzo writes. Just the other day I was reading slashdot, and somebody made a post referencing 'monopolistic robber barons'. It doesnt seem like anyone is willing to make any arguements for that point of view.

I'm trying to come up with arguements that would refute DiLorenzo (mabey that makes my post sound a little schizo) just to see if they can hold up. I was hoping to get some back and forth going with this post, doesnt seem like it is going to happen.

[/ QUOTE ] I think you should have phrased the OP differently if this was your goal. I believe that unchecked capitalism (at least under conditions of non-anarchy-just said to avoid the AC rampage) creates many monopolies-capitalism leads to a massive concentration of wealth property and power. However, while this is quite clearly bad ethically and undermines democracy, it doesn't seem that under current conditions this neccesarily leads to higher prices for consumers, but this could simply be because the threat of government intervention exists to provide an incentive against monopolies/oligopolies becoming harmful. Monopoly or oligopoly certainly leads to less choices (or at least less salient, reasonable choices) for consumers, however

Labor market power is a different story altogether.