[tomasien]

"Monopolies are good for the businesses that have them" is so ridiculously axiomatic I wish he would just stop making it the focus of his talk. We know this, and we know VC's get drastically bigger returns on those. The reasons we don't like Monopolies (if you're a person who doesn't like them) isn't because they're bad for those businesses or the market cap of those markets, but because they're bad for consumers and the economy as a whole.

Thiel's IMPORTANT point is that small monopolies lead to bigger ones and you can not start by going after a big monopoly. That is his point that is not only spot on but really, really important and actionable.

[aytekin]

"they're bad for consumers and the economy as a whole."

I read the book. He argues monopolies are good for consumers and economy as well. When companies have so much returns that they don't know what to do with it, the good ones will invest the money in R&D which in return is good for everyone.

[tomasien]

I was careful to say "if you're a person who believes monopolies are bad" - it's ancillary to my point whether they actually are.