Are monopolies anti-competitive?

Question

And if so, why did Austrian Economist Ludwig Von Mises say that eventually through free trade, there would be one firm producing the world's supply of each product. Are the Austrian Economists actually socialists in disguise?

Answer 1

Yes they are.  Monopolies have only one business in control of a market.  There are no competitors in a monopoly.  So, the business doesn't need to worry about anyone taking sales or possible profit chances away.  That is why they are not competitive.  In addition, they can set their prices high- with no competitors to deal with they can set prices as huge as they want and not have to worry about buyers going somewhere else due to the expensive price (no other business to turn to due to only one in control).

Answer 2

Yes Monopolies by there nature are anti-competitive.

a Monopoly is when one business controls all the market for a product or service.

since no other business are in (or can get into) that market that business has on competitors.

The reason Ludwig Von Mises said "eventually through free trade, there would be one firm producing the world's supply of each product."

is because business naturally want to make as much profit as they can.

one way to make sure you make a lot of money is by being big and controlling as much of the market share as you can.

if we are looking at a truly free market, where the government doesn't interfere with business it is very likely that companies will buy out or merge each other in hopes of getting a bigger and bigger market share until the point that a company is so big no one else can compete with them.

and no I don't think this means Austrian Economist are really socialist in disguise

Answer 3

Citation needed.

P.S. I have real issues with Mises; some of his work is outright deception. But he is most noted for his study of the economic calculation problem; in this context, it could be a thought experiment: would price signals work in such an environment? It should be obvious that other information problems would cripple each monopoly.

Answer 4

In a monopoly, there is only one producer of a good.  There is no competition for that good, so the quality of the product is what the producer gives you.  So yes, monopolies are anti-competitive because there is nobody competing with the single producing firm.  Ludwig Von Mises (I'm guessing) is using simple logic in his statement.  He is basically saying that eventually one firm will be able to create a product in such a way that no others will be able to compete with them.  For example.  If Company A can make a computer and only spend $100 while all of the other company's spend around $400, none of the other companies can compete with company A, and without Anti-Monopoly laws, Company A would probably eventually become a monopoly because their production methods are so good that other companies cannot economically compete.  If you look at specilization and comparative advantage, it makes since for one firm to make one product and companies and contries then trade. This allows for the maximum amount of products to be produced.  Hope this helps.