The Ubiquitous Monopoly :: Business Essays

The Ubiquitous Monopoly Monopoly is nearly always seen as something undesirable. Courts have wrestled with monopoly for ages, sometimes defining it as: "the power to control prices and exclude competition", "restraining trade", or "unfair and anti-competitive behavior." Should monopolistic practices be condemned and outlawed? Let's look at anti-competitive behavior and practices, but let's not confine ourselves to what's traditionally seen as monopoly. The marriage contract is essentially a monopoly document. It represents a legally sanctioned collusive agreement between two parties to exclude competitors and restrain trade. It closes the market to competition, or at least it is supposed to. This collusion has benefits as well as costs. Because I have exclusive rights to her affections and property rights to a stream of highly valued domestic services, I place a higher value on my spouse, making me willing to share with her a greater percentage of my wealth. My spouse receives a comparable set of benefits from this collusive arrangement. This monopolistic arrangement has a cost side and perhaps some inefficiencies as well. Neither one of us is as attentive as we were before we made our contractual arrangement. For my part, I don't open the car door for her as often, don't use breath fresheners and colognes as frequently, am not as nearly considerate and gentlemanly as before our marriage some 42 years earlier. The reason is simply that before marriage I was competing against other men and therefore could ill afford to act as a monopolist. Read the Old Testament's Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 5, where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. The first commandment, and presumably the most important is, "Thou Shalt have none other gods before me." The second is, "Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above. . . ." Then there's, "Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God. . . ." If a corporation made a similar decree regarding its services, it would find itself in the sights of the U.S. Department of Justice for gross violations of the anti-trust provisions of the Sherman and Clayton Acts. The Ten Commandments decree exclusive dealing and mandate neither substitutes for nor competition with God. In order for one to condemn all monopolistic practices as evil, at least for consistency, he would have to also condemn marriage and the basic tenets of Christianity.