Although Capitalist ideas support free commerce and competition, the domination of a few firms is a reality in certain industries. Despite the possible disadvantages of monopoly power, the benefits of them overcome the drawbacks.
Firstly, monopolies are more likely to make higher profits, which can finance studies and researches related to the products. The positive results from studies can lead to the improvement of products, new technologies, and the reduction of costs to clients. For instance, Google, a monopoly in the search engine market, averaging a net share of 74. 54%, have been reinvesting millions in perfecting the system without passing the costs on to consumers. This means that developments such as Google’s Cloud Platform and speech processing algorithm advances would be affected if the company only had a small part of the market.
Secondly, regarding the existence of monopolies in the pharmaceutical industry, patents are necessary to make costly researches attractive since it guarantees a better financial return. According to DiMasi, Grabowski, and Hansen (2016) an average of $1. 39 B must be spent to bring a drug to market in the US. The investment would be unreasonable if the profit resulted from the drug was shared with other companies; consequently, there may be less development of medical drugs.
Finally, supernormal profits made by monopolies allow them to subsidise loss-making services. Instead of focusing on winning consumers from their competitors, monopolies can invest in loss-making services that benefit the population. To illustrate, if a train company has high profits due to peak hour services, they can offer late-running rides to a few users, even being unprofitable.
To conclude, monopolies have a positive impact on society since they encourage research and development of new technologies and drugs. Moreover, they can have services focused on assisting the community and not only on increasing profits.
Although Capitalist
ideas
support free commerce and competition, the domination of a few firms is a reality in certain industries. Despite the possible disadvantages of
monopoly
power, the benefits of them overcome the drawbacks.
Firstly
,
monopolies
are more likely to
make
higher
profits
, which can finance studies and researches related to the products. The
positive
results from studies can lead to the improvement of products, new technologies, and the reduction of costs to clients.
For instance
, Google, a
monopoly
in the search engine market, averaging a net share of 74. 54%, have been reinvesting millions in perfecting the system without passing the costs on to consumers. This means that developments such as Google’s Cloud Platform and speech processing algorithm advances would be
affected
if the
company
only
had a
small
part of the market.
Secondly
, regarding the existence of
monopolies
in the pharmaceutical industry, patents are necessary to
make
costly researches attractive since it guarantees a better financial return. According to
DiMasi
,
Grabowski
, and Hansen (2016) an average of $1. 39 B
must
be spent
to bring a drug to market in the US. The investment would be unreasonable if the
profit
resulted from the drug
was shared
with other
companies
;
consequently
, there may be less development of medical drugs.
Finally
,
supernormal
profits
made by
monopolies
allow
them to
subsidise
loss-making
services
.
Instead
of focusing on winning consumers from their competitors,
monopolies
can invest in loss-making
services
that benefit the population. To illustrate, if a train
company
has high
profits
due to peak hour
services
, they can offer late-running rides to a few users, even being unprofitable.
To conclude
,
monopolies
have a
positive
impact on society since they encourage research and development of new technologies and drugs.
Moreover
, they can have
services
focused on assisting the community and not
only
on increasing
profits
.