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Pastimes : Austrian Economics, a lens on everyday reality -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (73)	12/14/2001 6:17:49 PM
From: Don Lloyd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 445

Tim - So if the government gives a monopoly to me to supply water in the US and enforces it with draconian punishments and I try to sell normal tap water at $1 gal you won't feel overcharged? Yes in a way no price is an overcharge if someone is willing to pay it. I don't argue that the government should try to control prices. Even a theoretical perfect government couldn't do it well and a real world government would be even worse. The free market is much better at these things. However if the government creates a monopoly then you don't have a real free market. The Austrian definition of a monopoly, at least for Rothbard, is the original one, a government enforced privilege. Since it can't have any direct competition, although it can have substitutes, only the maximum revenue price applies. It is when government forces competition through anti-trust enforcement that it forces inefficient production. Regards, Don