Examples Of Monopolies

Better national parks? Try privatizing them.

David Alpert was spot on in lambasting the “bureaucratic mentality at the National Park Service” [“ The Grand Canyon or Logan Circle? It’s all the same to the Park Service ,” Local Opinions, July 24].

The National Park Service has a government-backed monopoly on managing its parks. So it has little incentive to provide quality service or even eco-friendly amenities such as farmers markets or bike rentals. But to rectify “this prime example of government failure,” Mr. Alpert mistakenly called on the Obama administration and Congress to intervene. Why should we expect the government to solve a problem that the government created?

Instead of remaining a lumbering Leviathan, the Park Service should embrace market principles and privatize the parks. Environmental nonprofits such as the Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club have far better records in conservation and fostering partnerships with local communities. Since these privately managed parks wouldn’t have the luxury of using other people’s money, they would need to accommodate consumer demand. 

In addition, since these lands would be managed by environmentalists in the private sector, there would be little risk of regulatory capture by special interests, which was all too common in the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations.

The continued irrational fear of a free market monopoly

There is a piece on pcworld.com entitled, "AT & T / T-Mobile: Why this new monopoly is bad for consumers," which serves as a good example of the extremely common misunderstanding of monopolies. I think it is important to note some distinctions of different types of monopolies that may exist and what is meant by the use of the word monopoly. I will ask when the overwhelming majority of the time we refer to a monopoly they think of a giant firm which has total dominance in their respective industries, and to use that power to exploit the consumer.The irony is that in reality only a monopoly that has ever existed that behaves so is the government or monopolies. Thomas and Dominick T. Dilorenzo Armentano, learning from Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard, have both successfully demonstrated that the traditional teaching on monopolies (as taught by public schools, no less!) Is almost exactly the opposite of reality. I highly recommend the work relating to the above if you're not already familiar with the matter. Standard Oil is a great example of a monopoly that allegedly harmed consumers and emerged via the free market. Upon examining the evidence, we find that Standard Oil has reduced the price of kerosene from 30 cents to 6 cents at the height of their "monopolistic powers", and their market share was decreasing at the time Anti-Trust legislation was filed! Not exactly that scary image of an oil company charging outrageous prices for their product, at the expense of the helpless consumer, after all. When you combine this flawed education of evil free market monopolies that plagued society before the benevolent government reluctantly accepted the power of regulator and antitrust enforcer to save the helpless consumer from annihilation, with the interaction with a real monopoly, it is not surprising to find most people support government breaking up perceived monopolies. When I referred to a real monopoly, I am referring to interactions with the government in any capacity. Ironically, this is the type of monopoly that is harmful to the consumer, and whom will continue to thrive no matter what the consumer says or does, or how terrible the product they produce is. A few examples would include the DMV, Secretary of the State as it pertains to getting business licenses and so forth, the IRS, and on and on.

In defense of monopoly, how market power fosters creative production

Principles of economics

Elementary economis, an introduction to the study of economics and sociology

Microeconomics, Principles and Policy

Principles of Microeconomics