[kibwen]

> The only medium for creating monopolistic power is government.

This is naively incorrect.

Economies of scale exist. Larger companies have lower overheads, which leads to an advantage in pricing, which leads to large companies becoming larger, until there's only one left. This is a natural consequence of markets: absent outside intervention, they trend towards monopoly over time. Competition is not the natural state of a market. If you want competition (which you should, because competition is good for consumers) then you need outside intervention, which, if all else fails, must be the task of the government.

[s1artibartfast]

IF competition cant exist because of economies of scale, that means consumers are are better off with the monopoly than with competition.

Let me say that again, if a new competitor cannot undercut a monopoly, the customer would not be better off with more competition.

Nobody wants the government to break up a monopoly because economies of scale allow them to sell goods too cheaply.

If profits are high, there is room for competition.

If profits are low, customers are getting a good deal.

The only things that breaks this are 1) regulation to prevent competition despite high profits, or 2) anti-competitive practices like price dumping, exclusive contracting, ect.