Here's a perfect example of what I am talking about:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-......ry-syrup

Wait a few years and your list will be shortened.
And I don't think any of those are start-up companies. They are companies that already have plenty of capital.
Which you and I do not.

Yes, which is why I posted the story just above your post, which shows exactly what's stopping start up companies from competing.
Even not looking at mom and pop size start ups, there would still be those with more than enough money to jump back in to the market, or re-jump in, when the monopoly started gouging.
Unless you are suggesting that every potential businessman would have gone bankrupt.

1) Most new businesses as you are well aware, do fail.
2) A smaller company cannot ride out losses as long as a larger company.
3) Investment money goes to the company with even a slight advantage. This in turn multiplies the company's advantage.
4) It costs far more money to start a business than to continue it, due to investment in plant, regardless of government interference. A running business always has an advantage over a start-up.
5) Rarely does a small entrepreneur compete successfully against an established business by beating the larger business on price. The most successful have been those who have carved out a new niche in the market. When a new innovation occurs within an industry the innovation is almost always co-opted in one way or the other by the larger companies.

Yes, all true, and all of those made exponentially worse in the current market, as shown at in the above article.

Many are still able to (barely) compete with those inflated start up costs as things are now, they would have far MORE opportunity to do so, and stay in the market, in a free market, thus making it even harder for a monopoly to gain and maintain control of a market without maintaining competitively low prices ad infinitum.

You want to hear about REAL competition?

I used to work for a company called Art Mold. We printed on promotional items. (I'll bet half of you have a plastic key tag that looks like a luggage tag with fake stitching running around the edge, that's an AM-380 or the big plastic #1 with some inane slogan in the shaft. That's an AM-1. We were one of the biggest promotional companies in the country, constantly winning contests at promotional conventions. (Yes, promotional companies have conventions... I don't think they do much cos-play though!)

Along comes Norwood Promotion which wanted to be the BIGGEST promotional company in America. Their solution was to buy up the other three biggest companies, Art Mold being one of them.

We were called into a meeting and told that Norwood had only our best intentions at heart. We were not going to lose our corporate identity. We would remain "Art Mold-The Action Line - A Norwood Company." My co-worker summed it up best; "Update your resumes."

Within six months, they announced that there was corporate confusion in the business world and as of now we were "Norwood - The Action Line" (The other two companies had similar name changes.)

A year or so later, they called us in again and announced; "The lease is up on this building. We are not getting a new lease, we are not getting a new building. All the equipment and contracts are being sent to our home office in Illinois. If you want, you can apply for permission to move to Illinois and join us there." (Mind you, applying didn't automatically mean you were going to Illinois, they had to see if they needed you there first!)

So there you are. They got their wish, they are the biggest promotional company in America. And over three dozen people in Rhode Island lost their jobs. (Again, I don't know about the other two companies. I can only imagine they faced similar situations.)

I also discovered no on wanted a 46 year old typesetter/graphic artist ("more trainable" was the phrase I heard) and after 11 months of searching, I ended up at Wal Mart where I have been for 8 years! (In four more years, I'll be making what I was making at Art Mold when it was "engulfed and devoured.")

So there you are Glen, there's your wonderful open competition.

I'm not suggesting that there was anything that could have been done to stop Norwood. What they did was perfectly above board and fully legal.

It also sucked for over three dozen people.