Quote from: Alpaca John on June 01, 2013, 12:11:26 AM

Quote from: myrkul on May 31, 2013, 11:41:41 PM

Quote from: Alpaca John on May 31, 2013, 11:32:22 PM

In a free market, I think monopoly's in general will almost certainly develop over things that are scarce. (Car's, food, computers, etc.) This is not a good thing, because it centralizes power.

This is patently and provably false. The computer market is one of the least regulated on the planet. Cars have only safety and emissions regulations to contend with (and many companies voluntarily exceed those regulations). Food, similarly, has only health and safety regulations, and a few labeling requirements. You chose the worst possible examples for natural monopolies, since all of those industries show robust competition, in a largely unregulated (free) market.

Actually I was not talking about natural monopoly's. I was talking about monopoly's from integration - why did you choose to let that one out?

Sigh.

Quote from: myrkul on May 31, 2013, 10:10:07 PM

"Monopolies can be established by a government, form naturally, or form by integration." I'd say the latter two are just versions of the same thing: Market forces make it more efficient for one company to provide that commodity. In a free market, the former one would not be possible. So we're just left with "natural" monopolies to worry about.

It doesn't matter if the monopoly is formed via competition or merger, a natural monopoly is still a natural monopoly.

Quote from: Alpaca John on June 01, 2013, 12:11:26 AM

Plus, I'm pretty sure that all of these markets are regulated, since monopoly's are illegal in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law

That outlaws cartels, not monopolies (please take note, that is the proper pluralization). And "pretty sure" is a poor basis for argument. Monopolies are anything but illegal in the US. You just have to go through proper channels to establish one.

Quote from: Alpaca John on June 01, 2013, 12:11:26 AM

Also, it is illegal to kill your opponent, so that's another regulation. Sounds silly? The drug market is truly unregulated. The free market turns out not to work very well there. Violence works.

The reason violence is the dispute resolution method of choice in the drug market is because of the regulations making participation in that market illegal. They have no legal means of resolving disputes.