Word Assassin

“First of all, among economists and philosophers two near-universally accepted propositions exist:

Every ‘monopoly’ is ‘bad’ from the viewpoint of consumers. Monopoly is here understood in its classic meaning as an exclusive privilege granted to a single producer of a commodity or service, or as the absence of ‘free entry’ into a particular line of production. Only one agency, A, may produce a given good or service, X. Such a monopoly is ‘bad’ for consumers, because, shielded from potential new entrants into a given area of production, the price of the product will be higher and its quality lower than otherwise, under free competition.