What is a monopoly?

Answer

When one business or company dominates its area and squeezes out all its competition, the result is the consumer does not have a free choice, and inevitably the price of it's products or services will increase, and the 'Monopoly' increases it's profit. Although, sometimes prices stay low to discourage anyone from entering the market, profit still does occur. Not to be confused with a puremonopoly, where a company has control over the entire market for a product because of barriers to entry, a monopoly doesn't exist with complete control.

However, a monopoly is a philosophical process of direct competition leading to a puremonopoly, it is not in itself a purely dominating force. It is rather, the process of obtaining competitive grounds for a strive toward total control.

The board game Monopoly is based on this concept. The idea is to buy all the property and build lots of houses and hotels, dominate the board and charge all the other players high rents... you get rich and win. The winner of the game is the one whom grasps a competitive edge.

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A business that controls all the competition and pricing within an industry