monopolies and antitrust laws Essay

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Is it possible for a society to benefit from a company completely dominating the market. Based off of the history of the United States it does not seem like it is possible for society to thrive in a market with monopolies. This is why United States laws have been formed in order to prevent monopolies from existing, these laws are called antitrust laws. Even though America has forbade monopolies to exist on it's soil was that the best decision? Are there benefits from monopolies existing in today's society?

In today's society the term monopoly has a negative connotation, so humans automatically think that monopolies are bad. This is not always the case. There are many cases in which monopolies are good for society as well as detrimental to society. Read states that “Monopoly may be good or it may be bad, in the sense that human behavior may be good or bad—according to whatever ethical standard we use to measure moral action”(Read 1960). This means that whether a monopoly is good or bad is based off of what a person's moral compass is. An example Read gives is if a person discovers a way to surgically heal someone. Since that person is the only one who can do it, that person has a monopoly. Due to the limited amount of surgeries this person can do in a year he or she is the deciding factor on who gets this life saving surgery. This process guarantees fifty people and their families happiness, while the rest of the people are unhappy they did not get the surgery (Read 1960). This doctor did nothing wrong, but in the eyes of the people who did not get the surgery this doctor is a cruel person who determines who gets surgeries on a whim. The only way for a monopoly to be bad is of the company actively tries to take out its competition. An example of a good modern day monopoly would be Wal-Mart. Though not technically a monopoly yet Wal-Mart has successfully done what no other supermarket has ever done, take over. Wal-Mart has been beating out independent stores, simply because no one else can beat their prices. This is actually good for the market. With Wal-Mart in the picture weak businesses that can not handle the competition of Wal-Mart are dying off. This means consumers will eventually get the cheapest price for their goods. Though monopolies can be good at times, there is also a dark side to monopolies. Many companies take advantage of their resources, and try to unfairly fix prices to
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