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Monopolies
How do you feel about monopolies? Most people feel monopolies are somehow unnatural, producing a lack of choice. The one justification for a monopoly is that in certain circumstances a monopoly can produce a better product/service for less cost to individuals/government/environment than open competition. That type of monopoly is called a natural monopoly. Patents, trademarks and copyrights are also forms of monopolies.
The argument against even a natural monopoly is that it can, over time, lose the advantage that it once had and just become a bad habit.
DocBrain believes that persistent governmental control by a single political party, often stemming initially from a natural monopoly, can, over time, become an unnatural monopoly, perpetrated by tradition and habit. One such example is the persistence of Democratic control of the city of Pittsburgh. A city with enormous physical resources, beauty, and location, Pittsburgh has been fading into the backwaters of the national scene for decades. Lately, there has been a slight resurgence, fueled mainly by developments of businesses and communities at the edges of Allegheny County, and by national economic growth (even a pig can fly in a hurricane). Telecommuting has also opened Pittsburgh to the outside world. These are factors that are not due to the entrenched local Democratic Party, but in spite of it. Pittsburgh's main asset (old people) live off the public dole (medicare, social security) and continue to vote Democratic. An 80 year monopoly on political power in Pittsburgh has taken its toll.
How do you feel about monopolies? Most people feel monopolies are somehow unnatural, producing a lack of choice. The one justification for a monopoly is that in certain circumstances a monopoly can produce a better product/service for less cost to individuals/government/environment than open competition. That type of monopoly is called a natural monopoly. Patents, trademarks and copyrights are also forms of monopolies.
The argument against even a natural monopoly is that it can, over time, lose the advantage that it once had and just become a bad habit.
DocBrain believes that persistent governmental control by a single political party, often stemming initially from a natural monopoly, can, over time, become an unnatural monopoly, perpetrated by tradition and habit. One such example is the persistence of Democratic control of the city of Pittsburgh. A city with enormous physical resources, beauty, and location, Pittsburgh has been fading into the backwaters of the national scene for decades. Lately, there has been a slight resurgence, fueled mainly by developments of businesses and communities at the edges of Allegheny County, and by national economic growth (even a pig can fly in a hurricane). Telecommuting has also opened Pittsburgh to the outside world. These are factors that are not due to the entrenched local Democratic Party, but in spite of it. Pittsburgh's main asset (old people) live off the public dole (medicare, social security) and continue to vote Democratic. An 80 year monopoly on political power in Pittsburgh has taken its toll.
posted by DocBrain at
4:46 AM
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