^^^

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    19 hours ago

    The word for a market dominated by only a few very large players is oligopoly, not… polyopoly.

    Not saying you’re saying that, just saying.

    As to the etymology…

    Its derives from Greek.

    A monopoly has one (mono) influential seller for many (poly) consumers.

    An oligopoly has a few, wealthy (oligo, as in oligarch, oligarchy) sellers for many (poly) consumers.

    Importantly, in Greek, poly is closely related to polis, meaning basically ‘all of the people/citizens’.

    This is also where English gets ‘Politics’ from.

    Also, I wrote a whole other comment, but the mere existence of any competitors, no matter how small… doesn’t mean you aren’t a monopoly.

    Its just means you aren’t a perfect monopoly, which basically never exists in real life, outside of public utilities.

    If the rubric for ‘is it a monopoly?’ was ‘do any competitors exist?’, then basically no company that’s ever been broken up or regulated for being a monopoly was actually a monopoly.