To: Lucky Dog
How does a monopoly deny someone's economic freedom. they always have the right to buy or not to buy.
To: Daveinyork
How does a monopoly deny someone's economic freedom. they always have the right to buy or not to buy.
It is not necessarily the right to buy that is inhibited. However, such can actually be the case. Recall a comment from Henry Ford, They can any color they want as long as its black. Although Ford was not a monopoly the comment is not intended to imply such, the comment is illustrative of the potential loss of freedom of choice for the consumer in the market due to monopolistic practices.
However, the real lack of economic freedom is in the monopolistic enterprises ability to keep a competitor from potentially entering the market place or to potentially force a competitor out of the market by driving prices below the smaller competitors ability to absorb losses and keeping them there long enough to force the competitor to go out of business. Once the competitor ceases to be viable the prices can be raised again to a profitable level.
You have not doubt read the earlier exchange on this thread concerning this issue. If you have not I recommend it. Its assertions were essentially the same as yours.
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