Quote from: Rassah on October 15, 2011, 04:57:07 AM

Quote from: JeffK on October 15, 2011, 12:20:38 AM

It's like you people don't live in the real world or something.

What happens when the soda monopoly starts buying up the substitutes, running ad campaigns saying their substitutes are poisoned, etc?
How low do you think the barrier of entry for "electricity generation" is? Building and buying up solar panels and generators? Oh yeah, I've got spare parts for a turbine in my garage and several thousand dollars on hand for solar panels and batteries.
Cable TV? Really? What about companies like Comcast who have local monopolies all over the US? Do you think some entrepreneur will think to themselves "There might be some money here in starting my own ISP. Since Comcast won't let me use their network without paying, I better have a lot of cash upfront to lay my own fiber and install networking gear, plus enough extra money left over to absorb lots of losses when I have to sell my service at a loss when the previous monopoly tries to leverage their existing infrastructure and capital to price me out of the market,"

Sorry, won't happen. Business doesn't work that way. Fantasy world.
(Plus satellite, DSL/FIOS, web over electrical wires, wifi mesh, cell/4G network)

Yes it does. Monopolies don't just fill up an industry and wait for another person to roll in and provide a better service. They keep expanding, branching into other industries, setting up safeguards to stomp out competition, etc until they are broken up by an antitrust hearing.

See: Standard Oil, old AT&T, United States Steel