interpersonal comparisons of utility are not possible, there is no objective way to determine how severe even "minor" state impediments to entry and competition actually are. It is completely possible, for instance, that what may appear to be an extremely inoffensive governmental regulation, i.e., setting minimum safety standards for sellers, may in fact be harmful in the extreme with respect to certain potential businessmen and specific classes of consumers.
We conclude, therefore, that any and all state restrictions are "monopolistic," competition reducing, and destructive of consumer satisfaction vis-à-vis alternative free-market situations. We also conclude, in summary, that this particular theory of monopoly is the only theory that meets all the standard critical objections and remains entirely consistent with the general Austrian methodology.
- 1. For a review of this position see, for instance, Edwin Mansfield, Microeconomics, Second Edition (Norton, 1975), Chapters 9 & 10.
- 2. Willard F. Mueller, A Primer on Monopoly and Competition (Ran¬dom House, 1970), Chapter 2.
- 3. Israel M. Kirzner, Competition and Entrepreneurship (University of Chicago Press, 1973).
- 4. D. T. Armentano, The Myths of Antitrust: Economic Theory and Legal Cases (Arlington House, 1972), Chapter 2.
- 5. Ibid., pp. 212–15, 246, 267–68.
- 6. Ludwig von Mises, Human Action (Yale University Press, 1963), p. 358.
- 7. Ibid.
- 8. Ibid., pp. 358–60
- 9. Ibid., p. 358.
- 10. Ibid., p. 371.
- 11. Ibid., p. 373
- 12. Ibid., p. 371.
- 13. Ibid., p. 373.
- 14. Ibid., p. 375.
- 15. Ibid., p. 364
- 16. Kirzner, op. cit ., Chapter 1.
- 17. Ibid., p. 21.
- 18. Ibid., p. 103.
- 19. Ibid.
- 20. Ibid., p. 105.
- 21. Ibid., p. 110.
- 22. Ibid., p. 111
- 23. Murray N. Rothbard Man, Economy, and State , Volume II (D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., 1962), pp. 561–66. See also Journal of Economic Literature, September-October, 1974, pp. 902–3.
- 24. Rothbard, op. cit., pp. 590–93.
- 25. Ibid., p. 591.
- 26. Ibid., p. 593.
- 27. Ibid., p. 614.
- 28. Ibid., pp. 608–9
- 29. Ibid., p. 564.
- 30. Kirzner, op. cit ., p.103
- 31. Ibid., p. 20. This statement would seem to refute Kirzner's entire position on monopoly. If markets are always competitive so long as there is freedom to buy and sell, then in a free market there is always competition and never any monopoly.
- 32. Ibid., p. 103.
- 33. Ibid., p. 21.
- 34. Ibid., p.110.
- 35. And "future" in an entrepreneurial sense can mean the next moment competitive supply appears or threatens to appear.
- 36. See Rothbard's discussion of similar problems for cartels in<em> Man, Economy, and State</em>.
- 37. Kirzner,<em> op. cit </em>., p. 110.
- 38. Ibid., p. 111.
- 39. Ibid., p. 110.