News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:GPT-5.5 by noosphr on Thursday April 23, 2026 @09:31PM (#47884448)
A monopolist has no reason to decrease price because there is no competition. As we saw with Bell Labas in the US it is entirely possible for a monopoly to both have world class research and burry it for decades, viz. magnetic storage https://gizmodo.com/how-ma-bell-shelved-the-future-for-60-ye...

Oligopolists are in the same boat. But there needs to be a conspiracy to retard innovation. Something tech companies are only too happy to do: https://journals.law.unc.edu/ncjolt/blogs/wage-fixing-scheme...

Re:GPT-5.5 by kjshsh123 on Friday April 24, 2026 @08:28AM (#47889288)
Technological improvements don't reduce prices as much in a monopoly, but they still do reduce prices to increase profits. Profit is always maximized at MR=MC, in perfect competition, oligopoly, or monopoly.