Why is European broadband faster and cheaper? Blame the government

Re:Why is European broadband faster and cheaper? Blame the g... by nl on Wednesday June 29, 2011 @11:26PM (#2712387)

Properly speaking, the concept "monopoly" properly pertains only to situations where the government enforces the monopoly. This is the original meaning of the word (before it was altered in the 19th and 20th centuries).

I'd love to see where you got that idea because it isn't true.

The first use of the word was by Aristotle, where he describes Thales of Miletus' (who was a private citizen) cornering of the market in olive presses as a monopoly[1]

It's true that later there were some government sanctioned monopolies, but it is a mischaracterization to say that the word's meaning has ever changed. It was well understood then that there were monopolies that weren't sanctioned by the government (eg, the guild system in Europe).

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly#Historical_monopolies

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Re:Why is European broadband faster and cheaper? Blame the g... by maxharris on Thursday July 07, 2011 @12:48PM (#2739198)

I'd love to see where you got that idea

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=monopoly

weren't sanctioned by the government (eg, the guild system in Europe).

No, this proves my point exactly. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild. Here's the fourth sentence: "They often depended on grants of letters patent by a monarch or other authority to enforce the flow of trade to their self-employed members, and to retain ownership of tools and the supply of materials."

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