# Convince me that monopolies are a good thing.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convince-me-that-monopolies-are-a-good-thing/575654>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 22, 2011, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convince-me-that-monopolies-are-a-good-thing/575654 "2011-03-22T22:01:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Agnostic\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Agnostic\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agnostic_Pagan)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convince-me-that-monopolies-are-a-good-thing/575654/41 "2011-03-25T18:37:25Z")

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True, but regulatory capture is much harder to do for a single player than for a cartel. I don’t want to imply that monopolies should not be worried about, but as long as a system encourages innovation, their threat is minimized. And even then, not all innovation is necessarily beneficial. The financial companies are great at innovating wonderful new products, while also stifling any competing models from threatening their market share (restrictions on credit union lending, numerous other bank regulations that prevent entrepreneurs from creating better models, etc.)

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**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convince-me-that-monopolies-are-a-good-thing/575654/42 "2011-03-25T19:54:38Z")

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> [@Agnostic\_Pagan](#):
>
> True, but regulatory capture is much harder to do for a single player than for a cartel. I don’t want to imply that monopolies should not be worried about, but as long as a system encourages innovation, their threat is minimized. And even then, not all innovation is necessarily beneficial. The financial companies are great at innovating wonderful new products, while also stifling any competing models from threatening their market share (restrictions on credit union lending, numerous other bank regulations that prevent entrepreneurs from creating better models, etc.)

**Protected** monopolies have no need of innovation. And it doesn’t matter how they are protected. Or perhaps, it would be better to say the only innovation protected monopolies need is the kind that improves their protection.

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**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convince-me-that-monopolies-are-a-good-thing/575654/43 "2011-03-25T21:15:05Z")

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> [@septimus](#):
>
> With thousands of expert programmers, why doesn’t Microsoft provide such utilities, which would be child’s-play for even a single novice to write? I cannot think of any explanation except **they do not want to empower their users**. An unempowered user may find a need to buy more and more shrink-wrapped tools. An empowered user will learn to do simple tasks with simple building blocks.

Typical anti-Microsoft complaints with no substance. You should check out PowerShell.

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**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convince-me-that-monopolies-are-a-good-thing/575654/44 "2011-03-25T22:52:47Z")

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It would seem that monopolies are a lot like dictatorships. Of course they can theoretically be good, but more often than not, power corrupts.

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