The Misplaced Fear of Monopoly

Created on 2022-01-24T22:32:17-06:00

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Political entrepeneurs: optimal use of government to achieve ends

Market entrepeneurs: exploiting market opportunities to achieve ends

Andrew Carnegie, for instance, almost single-handedly reduced the price of steel rails from $160 per ton in 1875 to $17 per ton nearly a quarter century later
John D. Rockefeller pushed the price of refined petroleum down from more than 30¢ per gallon to 5.9¢ in 1897
Cornelius Vanderbilt, operating earlier in the century, reduced fares on steamboat transit by 90, 95, and even 100 percent (On trips for which a fare was not charged, Vanderbilt earned his money by selling concessions on board.)