The Robber Barons myth is something we hear persistently, not only from proponents of socialism but from people who support the mixed economy. In this video, I am Debunking Knowledge Hub on the erroneous monopoly myths of the 19th century. This was …
The Robber Barons myth is something we hear persistently, not only from proponents of socialism but from people who support the mixed economy. In this video, I am Debunking Knowledge Hub on the erroneous monopoly myths of the 19th century. This was a time period where big corporations and trusts became dominant in the late 19th-century and was claimed to have owned monopolies.
Again, you can cite to a video I created previously on the Antitrust Myths that relate to this argument here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC9KNt8-T4g
The very meaning of a monopoly and why it would be regarded as something bad for the economy is that it is predicated around the idea that a company, corporation or trust gains a dominant foothold of the market and shafts the consumer by driving up their costs and producing dangerous poor quality products. Nothing could be farther from the truth as I have pointed out for reasons in both the antitrust myths video and in this video.
Just like Knowledge Hub 'claims,' Cornelius Vanderbilt shafted consumers by blocking off trade links to New York, however, for reasons I have provided it contradicts this. The monopoly myths were based originally off the idea of predatory pricing, as we have saw throughout history, there has never once been a monopoly to stem from predatory pricing which only leaves one option; to restrict productive output to drive up their costs. Again, the opposite occurred contradicting Knowledge Hub on his claims.
The monopoly myths claimed of the Robber Barons period is that these giant corporations and trusts held monopolies, but rather, as I have pointed out previously the real cause and creation of monopolies stemmed from special-interest groups who lobbied Congress and their state legislature for special favours which just so happened to give them a competitive advantage over the very corporations who were outdoing them fairly in the marketplace. Whilst the big corporations and trusts were providing much cheaper and..
