[sitkack]

This idea is frankly retarded. I am not saying you have had it. This is directed at You. To say that monopolies drive progress strikes me as an anthropomorphisation of the motivations of innovators. Did AT&T Microsoft and Ford drive progress? Hardly. They existed when progress occurred but to attribute it do them is generous. Most progress is driven by the artists and scientists on the edge, they rarely see the fruits of their labor, the riches are picked up by the second and third waves of adopters.

Maybe monopolies refine innovations?

[byEngineer]

Funny you say this. I hate monopolies as the next guy. Reading Thiel's book right now. What he says is that monopolies can have luxury of innovation while in the perfect market conditions it is all about as low margin as possible without cash flying around to spend on extravaganza like innovation.

AT&T: telecommunications company that employed Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kerninghan to figure out software to play chess. Dudes created C language and UNIX OS in the process.

Which low margin cash-strived company will do extravagant stuff like that for kicks?

[mrow84]

Can you see any good argument against such monopolies being forced to be non-profit making entities?

The only argument that comes to mind is that it would create a disincentive against the drive towards monopoly that Theil apparently claims is beneficial. However, that seems to be something like the kind of the world we are in now.

I'm not sure there are any clear solutions to this problem - balancing incentive and the avoidance of corruption is just hard.

[icebraining]

AT&T: telecommunications company that employed Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kerninghan to figure out software to play chess. Dudes created C language and UNIX OS in the process.

Much more than that, actually. From Wikipedia:

Researchers working at Bell Labs are credited with the development of radio astronomy, the transistor, the laser, the charge-coupled device (CCD), information theory, the UNIX operating system, the C programming language, S programming language and the C++ programming language. Eight Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work completed at Bell Laboratories.

[sitkack]

Because this existed at a monopoly doesn't mean monopolies are good. Arguing from the standpoint of perfect markets makes no sense, only in a theoretical self consistent system, but it will have little bearing on reality.

An analogous argument can be made that war is good because DARPA funds research. We don't need war to have government sponsored research.

Because these occurred in one location under the umbrella of single entity doesn't make them better than if they were singular accomplishments by hundreds of organizations.