When only a few sellers offer a product with little regard to competition it is called an oligopoly. It is different from a monopoly because multiple corporations are involved, but the effects on the consumer are the same - bad. Although competition is usually in the best interest of the consumer, it is not always in the best interest of the corporation. If we examine the two leading soft drink producers, Coca-cola and Pepsi-cola, we see a prime example of an oligopoly (Zachary, 1999). As things are presently, each of these soft drink companies has about half of the soft drink market, and examined from a world-wide perspective that is a pretty large market. Either one of them, Coke or Pespi, could conceivably lower their prices in the hopes of gaining a greater market share, but doing so would cut into profits considerably, and with no real hope of...