Common Fallacies About Capitalism Summary and Analysis

This chapter is authored by Nathaniel Branden, who comments on some basic economic concepts. Branden begins by asking what prevents the formation of monopolies in a system of laissez-faire capitalism. He claims it is a fallacy of Marxism and economists to believe you cannot have free economies without the development of monopoly. The term evils of monopoly refer to coercive monopoly. This is a situation where a monopolist is completely independent of the market in setting his prices and production policies. It is a situation where competition is impossible and it is a situation only created by government in terms of special licenses, subsidies, actions or some kind of special privileges. A coercive monopoly is an entity like the electric or phone company and can only come into being through the existence of the principle...