Your claim holds no water because it portends the future. 'If Apple were crushed, Bill Gates would own the planet'. Very good. Except it ignores the small fact the market invents alternatives when none exist. It does this very well.
This. The idea that government has ever or can ever protect us from monopolies is laughable. Government is in fact the sole creator and enabler of monopolies. Can any of you statists name a single instance of a monopoly that has existed for any substantial length of time without government support? I'll bet you cannot.
I thought if you re-read your post above you would realize it contains contradictions that I couldn't imagine you really meant to write. For example, "Monopolies only exist, at least in the free market..." And you seem to have redefined "Monopoly" as something that one can compete against. Monopoly is the opposite of free market, isn't it? If one has a monopoly, by definition, one does not have competition. Are you suggesting that if one has an established monopoly that it can easily be lost to competition? If so, I don't think that is correct. A monopoly exists because it is able to eliminate or otherwise hold competition at bay. Usually the only way a monopoly can be broken up is via third party intervention, such as via anti-trust laws, etc. I am having a hard time accepting your arguments because they seem to fly in the face of reality, and go counter to what is generally understood to be true..
"A monopoly exists because it is able to eliminate or otherwise hold competition at bay. " This statement is true, but it just proves his point, because in reality, the means by which monopolists "eliminate or otherwise hold competition at bay" is nearly always the government. "Usually the only way a monopoly can be broken up is via third party intervention, such as via anti-trust laws, etc." This is not true because monopolies are broken up every day by the free market. Any new, unique product or service is a temporary monopoly for at least a little while, until the free market generates competitors, which ends the monopoly. The only reason monopolies can exist long enough to need to be broken up by third party intervention is because they're supported by some form of law or regulation (which includes patents and copyright laws) in the first place.
I believe virtually all of the monopolies in the U.S. of the late 19th century and early twentieth were formed without material government protection, or interference.. Isn't that why anti-trust laws were put in place. Today it is a different matter, however, and companies do obtain a certain level of protection from competition via government legislation that they often help draft..
Oh rilly? So, let's see, Microsoft held a monopoly over the OS and over browsers, at least for a little while, and currently holds a monopoly in spreadsheets and word processing, because of the government? Oh infinitely wise one, please inform little ignorant me as to just how this happened. I'm all ears, figuratively speaking.
It would be nice to see some explanation of how all those alleged facts relate to the Fed. Otherwise it's just a rant.