¶ … Oligopoly and a Monopoly: Viewed in Light of the AT& T. And SBC Prospective Merger
Since the Gilded age of the robber barons ended with the enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, corporate monopolies have had a bad name in American commerce. However, a monopoly is not synonymous with the abuse of consumer welfare. A monopoly is simply is the exclusive control by one group, often a company, of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service, although it arises frequently from government support or from collusive agreements among individuals, in the words of Milton Friedman. ("Monopoly," Answers.com, 2005) Sometimes, monopolies are conferred, often in the case of limited natural resources such as oil, or in industries with difficulty physical or economic barriers to enter the market. This was previously true of the telephone communications industry. The monopolistic right to dominate the industry was granted by the government, giving exclusive control over a specified commercial activity to a single party. (Robinson, 1969)
In contrast to the singular dominance of monopolies, oligopolies are industries controlled by a few companies or entities. Oligopolies often are allowed, tacitly or officially, in industries with high entry barriers, and are also often subject to strict government control. The concentration of supply in a few producers is not uncommon in the United States. For instance, several large companies have dominated the automobile and steel industries for decades. (Dewey, 1990)
Even in the name of protecting consumer welfare, many governments have created public-service monopolies by laws excluding competition from an industry. What resulted in the United States were generally publicly regulated private monopolies, such as some power, cable television, and local telephone companies. Such enterprises usually existed in areas of natural monopolies where the conditions of the market make unified control necessary or desirable to the public interest.
Since the 1960s, however, the U.S. Justice Dept. has occasionally...
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