Standard Oil drove out any and all competition in the oil industry, a rapidly growing industry during that time, and became the main (if not only) source of that product. Because of this, they were able to raise their prices from being quite low to being higher than average. Along with this, they were performing several illegal acts, such as asking money of their transporters to have the 'privilege' of transporting their goods, and because Standard Oil was the most prominent and well off, safe business at the time, they had little choice in the matter. Although one may argue that, because of their prominence, they would have a wider availability throughout the nation for all who required it, feeding the monopoly is not helpful in any way, shape, or form. Allowing a single company to completely rule a market, a rather large and necessary market at that, is an extremely risky and dangerous move due to the power they have. If they so desire, they could raise the prices from, say, 0.50$ to 5$ or even more, and the people would have no choice but to accept it because that was their only option. Having a monopoly such as Standard Oil reign free and do as they so desire is not helpful to its consumers, and the market …show more content…
Starting with Theodore Roosevelt enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act as was intended, there have been several laws since ensuring that a market breaking monopoly will not happen again; However, this is not foolproof. As aforementioned, things such as Steam are still happening, or perhaps the better known Wal-Mart or Comcast. One can only hope that our current monopolies do not corrupt, and continue to provide affordable, high quality services to the