Monopolies - Price considerations

[Stormin Norman]

Can anyone here tell me why prices are higher when markets are controlled by monopolies? Remember that monopolies can not simply set prices as high as they want. How do monopolists determine how much to charge for a good?

What other negative economic side effects can you think of where monopolies exist? Do monopolies ever benefit the consumer?

[antieverything]

Are these supposed to be rhetorical questions, or what?

Are you retarded or something? The monopoly works right into your own economic religion...it isn't hard to see how they work. According to the priests of capitalism, competition is what keeps things fair and prices reasonable. When the competition is gone, especially when you are dealing with neccesities such as electricity or water supplies, the company can charge as much as it wants. People either pay the price or die[live in the dark, etc.]. Can, say, an electricity company with a monopoly charge as much as it wants? No, of course not. Can it charge way too much and cause serious problems for those who will have problems paying for it? Yes.

The highest profits don't come from offering affordable water or electricity to everyone. They come from charging a scandelously high price that most people can still pay...even if they must live in poverty to do so.

Of course monopolies don't benifit people.
[hr]
I think that I can see where you are going with this, though. You are waiting for someone to respond to this and then compare a monopoly to socialism. Am I right?

The comparison doesn't hold, though. In a market with lots of competition, you can "vote with your dollars"...of course this gives some people a larger "vote". Nobody would buy electricity from Enron if it had a competitor who offered cheaper service.

In Socialism, you vote with your ballots...a much more effective method. If a public service isn't satisfactory, vote to change it or give it more funding.

Once again, you lose.

[Stormin Norman]

My you are awfully quick to claim victory. Especially for someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.

[antieverything]

And why don't I know what I'm talking about, Norm?

[Stormin Norman]

I was planning on getting to that. You will have to wait for my response.

[Goldfinger]

well if we're gonna have market competition, I'd like to challenge the government and make my own......

[antieverything]

You aren't going to come in here and try to convince me that there is no such thing as "too much profit" are you, Norm? If you are, just think about the people who get hurt in the process!

[Stormin Norman]

Tell me who gets hurt in the process. Are you going to tell me that you should be the one to decide what is considered to be too much profit. If not, who should make that determination. That's not what I was going to argue, but let's run with it to kill time.

[antieverything]

Was Enron making too much profit when they created artificial energy shortages? Is a farmer justified in destroying crops to drive up prices while children starve in the cities? [this happened right here in the USA!]

When a company controls water-rights and it lets the system go to hell while making a killing at the same time, is it making too much profit? Even as the people are unable to make ends meet just because of insanely high water costs? Is the profit that they are making because of hard work and therefore justified?

Who gets hurt by a monopoly? The consumer. You should know this!

[Stormin Norman]

"You aren't going to come in here and try to convince me that there is no such thing as "too much profit" are you, Norm? If you are, just think about the people who get hurt in the process! "

You appeared to be talking about profits in general not monopolies specifically. If profits are made honestly, I do not think there is such a thing as too much. The few despicable corporations that leftists refer to as reason to abandon logic and convert to a command economy do not represent a broad cross-section of those public companies listed on the Nasdaq or NYSE. Tell me antieverything, where are companies like Enron, Worldcom, Global Crossing, and Quest today?

[Tkinter1]

As the corrupt companies arise they are weeded out systematically. They never last for long.

[antieverything]

Enron's crooked accounting isn't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about what they did to the energy costs in California. They hurt people and made billions doing it! I also refered to privitizing water rights [which, may I point out, you have defended before, but without any argument what-so-ever...you apparently just wanted to argue about something!] but you didn't repond to that! Your criticisms are not only off target but also deceptively selective.

[Moskitto]

EDS got criticised for extreme accounting, i know someone who works for EDS and he is evil.

[antieverything]

Was that all you had to say, SN?