Monday, October 16, 2006

Natural Monopolies and Alternative Energy

Why does the government create monopoly power via its patent system, when elsewhere it spends millions trying to prevent the emergence of or regulate monopoly power?

The state wants to foster scientific growth. Although, this may be at odds when a scientific advancement would threaten the basis of a natural monopoly. For example, www.byronwine.com shows that GM, oil producers, and other companies have worked to suppress carburater technologies and alternative fuel technologies. Rudolpf Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine, when he tried to switch back to vegetable oil from crude was killed, likely by industry competetors. His fuel plan would have substantially reduced the natural monopoly of refineries. Today, alternative fuel technologies could/would demolish the accrued arbitrary wealth stored up in those refineries, oil fields, and also in certain elements of the $billions-level auto industry, as well as shift massive oil-centered political power, and the energy production industry and all it subsidiaries, nuclear and coal plants, natural gas plants, commodities shifting systems and infrastructure, and potentially their power lines and permits and contracts, certain elements of jet propulsion and tactical military complex production and threat assessment, as well as certain chemical plants, steel mills, and other cottage industries that would be quickly replaced by a new technology that made superior procedures affordable. As well as the added competition that could potentially be faced in most any monopolistic business by drastically reduced startup costs due to this shift in power production and availability of superior systems. Modernizing itself would probably cost 10-20% of any major firm’s annual revenue, while obsoleting many industries and fundamentally altering many others. However, the cost of this upgrade would be dramatically reduced by the very same measures that caused the need to upgrade. Furthermore, the 10-year return on value of investment and quality of life would be phenomenal. However, an investment in this era and a reutrn in that era would be very difficult to compare due to the corresponding shift in the value and function of money in such a society. This might/would cause massive deflation, which could seem like devaluation to an analyst or investor, but in actuality it is hypervaluation because of the new perfusion of goods and the cheapness of producing and distributing those goods in the new market.

Alternative fuels still face an uphill battle, but they are being aided by Mother Nature, the principle of shortage, and growing human population. All these are God’s ways. Patents do exist for alternative technologies. About 20 patents exist for 100%< efficient special electrolysis water splitting technologies and certain companies make use of them. A patent for a motionless electromagnetic generator was produced in spring of 2002, but it has yet to be meaningfully applied for these reasons.

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