Utility companies are regulated monopolies - imagine if every power company had to build their own separate power lines to every home and business, etc. That is neither logical nor feasible, so they ended up as a monopoly that was heavily regulated.
Other than that, monopolies are generally broken up (FTC, etc.) whenever they occur.
Not everywhere. Some states like Texas are a little smarter about this. You break up the distribution and supply. Distribution has to be a monopoly, but there's no reason that supply does. In this model, the municipal government can run distribution with open access rules and supply can be entirely private.
There's no reason you have to let both be rolled up into one entity with a weak PUC watching over it.
Other than that, monopolies are generally broken up (FTC, etc.) whenever they occur.
Yea.. that fails to explain all the monopolies that currently exist. Seriously, just look at some of the recent FTC court cases.. the judiciary buys all the Chicago school excuses and refuses to regulate or act. All they see is "pricing efficiency" and they entirely ignore "labor monopolization" and it's effects.
Our economy is so currently over monopolized it's not even funny. "Generally broken up." This is laughably out of touch or entirely ignorant of how diverse our business units were, even just 20 years ago.
Utility companies are regulated monopolies - imagine if every power company had to build their own separate power lines to every home and business, etc. That is neither logical nor feasible, so they ended up as a monopoly that was heavily regulated.
Other than that, monopolies are generally broken up (FTC, etc.) whenever they occur.
Not everywhere. Some states like Texas are a little smarter about this. You break up the distribution and supply. Distribution has to be a monopoly, but there's no reason that supply does. In this model, the municipal government can run distribution with open access rules and supply can be entirely private.
There's no reason you have to let both be rolled up into one entity with a weak PUC watching over it.
Yea.. that fails to explain all the monopolies that currently exist. Seriously, just look at some of the recent FTC court cases.. the judiciary buys all the Chicago school excuses and refuses to regulate or act. All they see is "pricing efficiency" and they entirely ignore "labor monopolization" and it's effects.
Our economy is so currently over monopolized it's not even funny. "Generally broken up." This is laughably out of touch or entirely ignorant of how diverse our business units were, even just 20 years ago.