Comment Re:Just like "free" housing solved poverty! (Score 1) 262
OK this will be my last response. First of all, aren't you conflating financials with economics? While on a balance sheet, you may be able to say that building out infrastructure is simply a shifting of assets, but that is simply not true economically. Economically, we cannot say that built infrastructure is worth the same as the money used to build it, as value is entirely subjective. Whether or not the infrastructure increases or decreases in value (as represented in units of dollars, although of course value and money are not the same thing) is determined by whether society (internet service consumers in this instance) prefer the resource in its former or latter state. If Comcast invested $500 million in a vast infrastructure that no one wants and thus has little or no value, then that is certainly not a $500 million asset (it may be when looking at a balance sheet, but not economically).
As for AT&T, you're completely changing the subject. Not only that, but you're just throwing random anecdotes around without anything to substantiate, such as: "They were a monopoly and they gouged us." Interestingly, then you concede the argument: that innovation overthrew the monopoly. Okay, yeah I'm being facetious. But you do get my point, right? Competition need not come strictly from another company trying to offer a very similar service or product.
I concede it may not be possible for Comcast to grow their cable business. I thought of the same constraints you mentioned before I submitted, but wasn't about to make your argument for you.
The last thing I take issue with is your idea of what a normal firm does vs what a monopoly[1] does. Both firms seek to optimize their prices and capacity as to obtain the greatest possible profit. A monopoly is not the only type of firm who may want to reduce output to increase prices and ultimately gain a greater return.
[1] For the record, I reject your definition of monopoly. It is arbitrary to assume that the optimum number of firms in a given market must be between x and y.