Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site cbscc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!cbsck!cbscc!lvc From: lvc@cbscc.UUCP (Larry Cipriani) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: more on oligopolies - another answer to Tim Sevener Message-ID: <4344@cbscc.UUCP> Date: Wed, 12-Dec-84 16:19:59 EST Article-I.D.: cbscc.4344 Posted: Wed Dec 12 16:19:59 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 13-Dec-84 02:51:55 EST Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus Lines: 31 From Tim Sevener: Oh, come now, how did "government" have anything to do with John D. Rockefeller's control of 99% of the oil industry? He took it over all by himself! This is precisely the problem Libertarians with their belief in the magical "invisible hand" fail to address: how did once free markets come to be dominated by a few firms? Does this not seem to have been a natural outgrowth of the economic system itself? What would prevent Standard Oil from acquiring a monopoly with no government intervention? The fact is they did so. Why has our present economy become more and more dominated by large oligpolies? From an *economist* friend of mine: John D Rockefeller initially came to control so much of the oil industry because he was the first to exploit the commercial potential of petroleum (previously, whale oil had lit America's lamps). Initally, he controlled--not 99% of the oil industry--100% of the oil industry, just as AT&T once controlled 100% of the bipolar-transistor industry. When one realizes that Rockefeller was first, one realizes that it is just plain stupid to ask how Rockefeller came to control the oil industry. The real question is: How did he RETAIN control? The best book on how industrialists USED THE GOVERNMENT to preserve their market shares is *The Triumph of Conservatism : A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900-1916* by Gabriel Kolko (Kolko is, incidently, a radical Leftist, not a Libertarian). Larry Cipriani cbscc!cbsch!lvc