Subject:
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Re: Gotta love Oracle...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 10 Oct 2001 12:58:24 GMT
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Viewed:
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583 times
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Horst Lehner wrote:
>
> <No greeting on request of Larry ;-), and to not err in the name ;-)=)>
>
> > If you had a choice are you going to use the road that cares or the one that
> > doesn't?
>
> Well, my response to this idea may apply less to the US than to Europe: We
> don't have enough space to build a CHOICE of roads to every destination.
You may not have space for a choice of roads, but people can chose where
to live and work (or should be free to - free marketting the road system
won't help if other parts of the economy are not free markets).
> So, what remains of my point probably is threefold:
> - There is some truth to the idea that each monopoly creates a
> less-than-optimum product
Probably true, though not always.
> - The question whether the monopoly is state-owned or privately
> held does not make much of a difference
It depends on how much accountability there is. In a free market, a
private monopoly won't be any more insulated from accountability than a
non-monopoly. The government gets to decide who can hold it accountable
(especially who can sue it).
> - There are certain products (not too many of them, actually) that
> require a monopoly. Reasons for this could be: Resource limitations,
> equality of rights, and unability to make profits from something
> that is considered socially important
I don't think ANY product requires a monopoly. Certain products may be
most efficient with localized monopolies, but so long as the overall
freedom of the market is high, a localized monopoly must still compete
with the localized monopoly of the same product in another region.
We see this often in the USA. One simple example is the uneven state and
local taxes (where the governments certainly have a localized monopoly),
there is always migration from the high tax area to the low tax area
(though when you get to cities and counties, people do chose to live in
the higher tax areas because they perceive the services to be better).
--
Frank Filz
-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com (business only please)
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Gotta love Oracle...
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| (...) That's fine in a macroscopic sense, but it could easily mean that two whole populations of consumers get hosed in pursuit of that will-o-wisp named The Free Market. In my region, for instance, AT&T holds a de facto monopoly on cable service, (...) (23 years ago, 10-Oct-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Gotta love Oracle...
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| <No greeting on request of Larry ;-), and to not err in the name ;-)=)> (...) Well, my response to this idea may apply less to the US than to Europe: We don't have enough space to build a CHOICE of roads to every destination. So, what remains of my (...) (23 years ago, 10-Oct-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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