Chapter 8, Monopoly and the Social Responsibility of Business and Labor Summary and Analysis

The marketplace lacks the personal rivalry often associated with competition. Instead, it has an impersonal character. Prices are determined by the market. Monopolies arise when particular individuals or enterprises come to dominate a market and control the terms on which individuals can access it.

Monopolies therefore raise two problems for the liberal: they produce limits on voluntary exchange and raises the issue of the "social responsibility" of the monopolist (for the firm in the competitive market has no choice but to follow what actions produce profit and which do not).

There are three primary forms of monopoly: monopoly in industry, monopoly in labor and government produced monopoly. Monopolies in industry are rare; many see monopolies when they in fact only see large firms...