Sherman Antitrust Act - What/Who does it apply to?

Panarchy — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 05:05:36 GMT

I was just reading the United States v. Microsoft case on Wikipeda. It mentioned the Sherman Act, which is some anti-Monopoly law.

So I was wondering, if the Monopolies are illegal, then what about Government? Or how about Religion? Or to get into some specific within Government;

School students monopoly
School curriculum
Money (they print it, the interest rate isn't made by the Market, it is instead made by Governement)
Student monopoly (to get a student card, you need to be part of a registered institute)
Train monopoly (there are private stations, however there aren't private trains as such, at least not to the city)
Land monopoly (taxes)
Tax monopoly (I had to say it!)

And the list would go on for at least a page.

Perhaps someone can finish the list for me?

Anyways, back on topic!

So the difference between these Government and (at least in the past) Religion monopolies compared to monopolies such as the aforementioned case, is that with the aforementioned case Microsoft wasn't holding a forced monopoly. However Government and (at least in the past) Religion are/were holding monopolies forcibly.

So why doesn't the Sherman Act apply to those aforementioned monopolies? Once again, it appears that the Government is above the law.

What are your thoughts on this?

Also, I can follow this thought process much further, but I don't want to repeat what someone has already said before, so if there are any articles already out there saying the same thing I am saying (or similiar) then can you please tell me where to find it otherwise I will write an article about this.

Thanks,

Panarchy

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Sherman Antitrust Act - What/Who does it apply to?