Except that Microsoft is a once in a generation monopoly. There's nothing else like it. Cf. the airlines.
Doug
^^^^^ CB: The number of monopolies "in" the economy is not the key issue here. It is the monopoly competition and destruction of competitors.
Lets use "oligopoly". "Monopoly" is not meant to refer to _only_ one company in an industry. The U.S. economic landscape is dominated by oligopolies isn't it ? Fortune 500; 7 oil sisters are now , what 5 ? Walmart. Auto oligopolies. Detroit's historical landscape is littered with most of the auto companies that existed , with a few left standing. The new oligopolies from other places that now challenge GM , Ford and Daimler-Chrysler's oligopoly do not contradict the point. Monopolization is a process , not a state. New ones arise ,old ones fall, etc. Finance oligopolists are the main form. There are conglomerates, mergers, etc. are aspects of the process. CVS is knocking out small drugstore owners. Supermarkets replace Mom and Pops.
Process means coming into being, existing and passing away. Lenin was a dialectician. He was not likely to mean that the specific concentrations of wealth that came into existence circa 1900 were permanent fixtures. But rather that the process of monopolization (oligopolization) is "permanent" as long as there is still capitalism. People may not "subscribe" to dialectics, but when one reads Lenin, he should be interpreted as using dialectics, otherwise, one won't get what he is saying.