[ThomPete]

That is putting the wagon in front of the horse IMHO. A monopoly doesn't drive progress imho it takes advantage of an opportunity no one else did compared to where the world is at any given time.

[seanflyon]

> takes advantage of an opportunity no one else did

Sounds like a reasonable definition of progress.

[ThomPete]

That doesn't mean that the monopoly drives it and there are plenty of examples of monopolies hindering it.