I want to give myself an uppercut for arguing with you two but I am compelled to do so on the "minor points".
As Dickmojo points out below, a monopoly will mostly only ever exist with assistance of the state. And for ports and dams and rail lines alike the state will always ensure that is the case. Why? Because, the state will always be there to stop pure capitalism from destroying the environment unnecessarily (well I hope they are). So, if say a harbour was privatised and started gouging, you will never have a situation where the government (or the locals) will allow you to bulldoze hundreds of acres of mangroves et al so you can build another port simply just to compete. Sure if the port was well in excess of capacity this may be considered but to wreck a nice piece of virgin coastline just because someone is gouging and competition needs to be maintained will never happen. Alternatively, for the same case of water supply. If a dam operator overcharges to the point that say desalination became viable because the government will never allow a huge dam to be built just to lower water prices, all the dam operator has to do is lower his prices back down to cheap levels until he puts the desal guy out of business and put them back up.
National Defence can not ever be effectively privatised in a Libertarian society. Happy to discuss that in a separate conversation.
Agree totaly with this sentiment, but my comments above to Bordsilver still apply with some select types of industry.
Bordsilver said:I largely agree but would note that the credible threat of competition even if not physical competition is generally enough to "keep the bastards honest". Hence, the owner of the port infrastructure (not the operator which can be readily privatised) can be readily prevented from "excessive" charging by the threat of a major customer (or group of customers) being willing to, say, construct their own port nearby or to build a rail link from another port 200km away.
As Dickmojo points out below, a monopoly will mostly only ever exist with assistance of the state. And for ports and dams and rail lines alike the state will always ensure that is the case. Why? Because, the state will always be there to stop pure capitalism from destroying the environment unnecessarily (well I hope they are). So, if say a harbour was privatised and started gouging, you will never have a situation where the government (or the locals) will allow you to bulldoze hundreds of acres of mangroves et al so you can build another port simply just to compete. Sure if the port was well in excess of capacity this may be considered but to wreck a nice piece of virgin coastline just because someone is gouging and competition needs to be maintained will never happen. Alternatively, for the same case of water supply. If a dam operator overcharges to the point that say desalination became viable because the government will never allow a huge dam to be built just to lower water prices, all the dam operator has to do is lower his prices back down to cheap levels until he puts the desal guy out of business and put them back up.
Bordsilver said:, changing the provisions of national defence, roads, justice, etc is extremely challenging but (I believe) completely possible.
National Defence can not ever be effectively privatised in a Libertarian society. Happy to discuss that in a separate conversation.
Dickmojo said:Regarding your other points, I hold that private enterprise could only ever hold a monopoly or a pseudo monopoly with assistance from the State i.e. it requires the State to pass regulations and requirements that are so onerous that only very large companies with very large economies of scale to hire armies of lawyers and lobbyists and accountants etc. can comply with them. Smaller and potentially more agile competitors, which could otherwise outcompete these bloated monopolies, are prevented to by Big Statism in cahoots with Crony Corporatism, and the only solution to this problem would be small government libertarianism
Agree totaly with this sentiment, but my comments above to Bordsilver still apply with some select types of industry.