Monopoly FAQ

Everything you need to know about monopolies plus more!

So the other day, Elizabeth Warren put out this frightening tweet:

Wow! A sandwich shop monopoly! Could you imagine that? They’d be able to charge $500 for a ham and cheese sandwich, and there would be nothing — nothing — you could do about it.

So what exactly are monopolies, and what can we do about them? Well, lucky for you, I made this monopoly FAQ to tell you all about them.

The Frank J. Monopoly FAQ

Q. What is a monopoly?

A. Let’s look at the word. “Mono” means “one,” and “poly” means “many.” So it’s one many.

Q. Huh?

A. One many.

Q. What does that mean? One many is nonsensical.

A. Well, that’s how we get the word “monopoly.” It’s one many.

Q. But what is one many supposed to mean?

A. It’s twice that of a duopoly, which is two many.

Q. Are you sure that’s what the word means?

A. It’s pretty obvious. Mono means one — what else is that going to mean? And poly is a common modifier that means “many,” like in polyglot, which means lots of glot.

Q. What’s a glot?

A. I dunno. You can google it.

Q. Isn’t this an FAQ?

A. It’s a monopoly FAQ, not a glot FAQ. If you want to know about glot, you’ll have to learn that independently.

Q. And if I want to know about a monopoly?

A. I already told you: That’s one many.

Q. That doesn’t mean anything!

A. That’s not my fault; I didn’t make the word.

Q. Know what? I took your advice and googled. And guess what: The word monopoly comes from the Greek words monos, meaning “single,” and pōlein, “sell.” It means “one seller,” you dolt!

A. Well, if you’re just going to google what a monopoly is, what do you need a monopoly FAQ for?

Q. I was hoping to learn something interesting.

A. And you did learn something interesting: You learned the word monopoly means “one many,” which you didn’t know.

Q. That’s because you made it up!

A. I also know lots of other really cool stuff about monopolies, but I’m only going to share it with paid subscribers because you sound mean, and I doubt you’re one of them.

Q. You don’t have any useful information. You’re not fooling me.

A. Uh-uh. I know things that will explode your mind. But it’s all going behind a paywall. Here comes all the greatest information… right after the paywall.

***PAYWALL HERE***

---