On Mar 1, 2005, at 4:21 PM, Dave Sherohman wrote: > Oh, I dunno... I read that and the first thought to my head is, "And > where did the telcos and cable providers get their monopolies?" Is > it a true market failure if the problems are caused by a government- > granted monopoly? Yes, it is. But that's a fair question. There's no such thing as a truly free market anywhere on Earth. Every (legal) business in every market operates in a context of rules set up by governments. Sometimes those rules encourage private sector behavior that produces positive results for the community. But sometimes not. It's still the free market failing to meet everyone's needs -- with poor and marginalized communities usually bearing the brunt -- or failing to generate the innovation and competition that produce better services cheaper for more people -- as often happens with monopolies. Whether such market failures are the government's fault or the private sector's is pretty much moot. They happen. And government's job in those cases is to step in and try to address them by changing the rules and incentives that drive private sector behavior, or start providing those services directly. -- Leif Utne Associate Editor, Utne Magazine 612.338.5040 x348 www.utne.com http://public.xdi.org/=Leif.Utne --