[lbo-talk] Meth and Monopoly (was Lumpen)

[Jim Devine]

On 1/25/06, Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
> Where there arises monopoly among those who commit crimes, it seems
> to me that the state helps create it, by putting petty competitors
> out of business.

this is one of those cases -- ignored by the econ. textbooks, natch --
in which monopoly can be better than a competitive market. After all,
monopoly prices discourage people from using meth.
--
Jim Devine
"The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an
intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin