On Mar 1, 2005, at 4:21 PM, Dave Sherohman wrote:

> Oh, I dunno...  I read that and the first thought to my head is, "And
> where did the telcos and cable providers get their monopolies?"  Is
> it a true market failure if the problems are caused by a government-
> granted monopoly?

Yes, it is. But that's a fair question. There's no such thing as a 
truly free market anywhere on Earth. Every (legal) business in every 
market operates in a context of rules set up by governments. Sometimes 
those rules encourage private sector behavior that produces positive 
results for the community. But sometimes not. It's still the free 
market failing to meet everyone's needs -- with poor and marginalized 
communities usually bearing the brunt -- or failing to generate the 
innovation and competition that produce better services cheaper for 
more people -- as often happens with monopolies. Whether such market 
failures are the government's fault or the private sector's is pretty 
much moot. They happen. And government's job in those cases is to step 
in and try to address them by changing the rules and incentives that 
drive private sector behavior, or start providing those services 
directly.

--
Leif Utne
Associate Editor, Utne Magazine
612.338.5040 x348
www.utne.com
http://public.xdi.org/=Leif.Utne
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