Monopoly

Wiccan_Child · Nov 6, 2009

Is it immoral to have a monopoly? Is it moral to punish a company for having a monopoly?

DeathMagus · Nov 6, 2009

Wiccan_Child said:
Is it immoral to have a monopoly? Is it moral to punish a company for having a monopoly?

They're not inherently a bad thing, and are required in some instances (such as certain utilities). Monopolies are much more susceptible to exploitation, though, so careful monitoring is necessary.

lawtonfogle · Nov 6, 2009

Having one? No. Abusing one for profits? Yes.

What exactly constitutes abuse? Heavily debated.

PreachersWife2004 · Nov 6, 2009

having a monopoly opens one up to corruption. If I'm the only one providing hot dogs on the corner and people really want hotdogs, what's stopping me from jacking my prices up to kingdom come? I'm already making a profit with what I'm selling my hotdogs for, so to jack up my prices is just being corrupt and abusing the people who buy from me.

Back in the day when Ameritech was the big kahuna in telephone companies, that is EXACTLY what they did. Anyone who wanted into the telecom business had to rent their lines through Ameritech and Ameritech would charge through the nose for the lines, which would dissuade companies from starting up. Ameritech regularly jacked the costs for phone services - they used to charge an extra $5 a month just to have touch tone instead of pulse!

Someone felt this behavior was immoral and they took Ameritech to court...and now we have many phone services options and many different prices to pay. It's a far better market.

Belk · Nov 6, 2009

Wiccan_Child said:
Is it immoral to have a monopoly? Is it moral to punish a company for having a monopoly?

Board games are never immoral. (though monopoly does come close)

PreachersWife2004 · Nov 6, 2009

Belk said:
Board games are never immoral. (though monopoly does come close)

and now they have the monopoly games where you use a credit card, and the one where you can simply build nuclear power plants and destroy someone's cities!! (I think it's nuclear, but don't quote me on that. No, really, don't!!)

The HORROR!

Personally I prefer Hungry Hungry Hippos and Uno.

Belk · Nov 6, 2009

PreachersWife2004 said:
and now they have the monopoly games where you use a credit card, and the one where you can simply build nuclear power plants and destroy someone's cities!! (I think it's nuclear, but don't quote me on that. No, really, don't!!)

The HORROR!

Personally I prefer Hungry Hungry Hippos and Uno.

Never played HHH, Uno is a good no brainer game.

For a really good time try settlers of Catan.

The Settlers of Catan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

shinbits · Nov 6, 2009

Monopolies aren't inherently, but as mentioned, can result in an abuse of power. That danger is what makes it wrong. However, I don't think a monopoly on something relatively unimportant, like potato chips, is wrong. It's only an issue things we depend on, like a monopoly on cars, phones or the internet.

ebia · Nov 6, 2009

Wiccan_Child said:
Is it immoral to have a monopoly? Is it moral to punish a company for having a monopoly?

It's not immoral as such, but since a captialist economy relies on competition to work properly it needs to prohibit monopolies and cartels in most situtions and heavily regulate the situations where they are unavoidable.

If we weren't relying on competition to make the thing work then we wouldn't need to prohibit them.

david_x · Nov 7, 2009

Belk said:
Never played HHH, Uno is a good no brainer game.

For a really good time try settlers of Catan.

The Settlers of Catan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Settlers is so gooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!

ThatRobGuy · Nov 8, 2009

I think that monopolies, while not immoral themselves, usually are the result of immoral activities. It's kind of hard to destroy all of your competition without cutting some kind of corners or stepping on someone else.

b&wpac4 · Nov 8, 2009

To quote Steven Wright:

"I find it wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly."

Nathan45 · Nov 8, 2009

Wiccan_Child said:
Is it immoral to have a monopoly?

no.

Is it moral to punish a company for having a monopoly?

yes.

Robbie_James_Francis · Nov 8, 2009

Private monopolies are, IMO, definitely morally wrong. Democratic, nationalised ones on the other hand are a great good. Competition, when it means citizens freely voting, is great. When it means shareholders thinking of ways to abuse the rest of society, it isn't.

david_x · Nov 9, 2009

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Wiccan_Child · Nov 9, 2009

Nathan45 said:
yes.

Why is it moral to punish a company for being the best at what it does?

Robbie_James_Francis said:
Private monopolies are, IMO, definitely morally wrong.

Why?

Robbie_James_Francis said:
When it means shareholders thinking of ways to abuse the rest of society, it isn't.

Is that necessarily what all shareholders think about?

DeathMagus · Nov 9, 2009

Wiccan_Child said:
Why is it moral to punish a company for being the best at what it does?

Simply that a company is able (one way or another) to remove or inhibit its competition does not necessarily mean it is the "best" company.

Silent Bob · Nov 9, 2009

DeathMagus said:
Simply that a company is able (one way or another) to remove or inhibit its competition does not necessarily mean it is the "best" company.

When the company's main purpose is to make money for its shareholders then its ability to inhibit competition and corner the market make it the best at what it does. If the company's purpose is other than make money who will buy its shares tho?

Wiccan_Child · Nov 9, 2009

DeathMagus said:
Simply that a company is able (one way or another) to remove or inhibit its competition does not necessarily mean it is the "best" company.

I disagree. If customers prefer this company over that, then the former is obviously doing something better to the latter. This could be due to better value for money, better stores, the ubiquity of the stores, etc. It could also be due to their stamping out any competition, but that isn't necessarily the case.

If (say) Tescos out-perform their competition, why should they be punished for that?

DeathMagus · Nov 9, 2009

Silent Bob said:
When the company's main purpose is to make money for its shareholders then its ability to inhibit competition and corner the market make it the best at what it does. If the company's purpose is other than make money who will buy its shares tho?

I reject the notion that the company that makes the most money for its shareholders is the "best" company. One does not need to have the most profitable business in a particular market to sell shares successfully. Of course, having the highest dividends helps, which is why we have regulation in the first place - to reign in the stupidities of capitalism.

Wiccan_Child said:
I disagree. If customers prefer this company over that, then the former is obviously doing something better to the latter. This could be due to better value for money, better stores, the ubiquity of the stores, etc. It could also be due to their stamping out any competition, but that isn't necessarily the case.

If (say) Tescos out-perform their competition, why should they be punished for that?

Because the fact that a customer prefers one company over another only reflects on the aspects of that company that the customer cares about. The majority of the time, the customer doesn't place as much consideration on poor ecological impact, unsustainable practices, the sacrificing of long-term growth via reinvestment for superficial, high immediate dividends, the exploitation of labor, etc.

The "customer knows best" philosophy only ensures quality of product, convenience, and low price - the things the customer is directly affected by in the short term - and even that relies on competition to guarantee that the customer is able to switch away from the company that sells a good with inelastic demand if the company decides to drop quality and cut costs after cornering the market.

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Monopoly

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