I decided that I don't get into nearly enough debates with strangers.

[Mr Khan]

SamuelRSmith said:

Typically speaking, I'm very weary of people claiming "special cases" like water. I'm sure, if given the chance, 99% of markets could be argued to be "special cases"

For example, with your case on water, there may only be one provider of water, but they still want you to consume as much of their water as possible. If the company charges too much, people will respond by conserving their water. They may even resort to collecting a portion of the water that falls on their property, and use it, instead of the water that this monopoly provides.

A particularly smart man might sign people up to a business where he installs large tanks, and fills them on a regular basis for a monthly charge, or something. Eventually, if the problem goes on for too long, another company WILL build a second set of pipes. I saw a statement by Coca Cola that said they now consider drinking water from the tap to be their number 1 competitor... if a water company starts acting in a bad way (in a free market), who knows what business proposition CC could sweep in with?

These are off the top of my head, but a natural monopoly in one form of supplying the water doesn't mean it's a monopoly on water. Apple have a monopoly on iPhones... but they don't have a monopoly on smartphones.

The same goes for the trains. If they do start price gauging, so what, people will begin to use alternative forms of transport, and, eventually the company will be forced to change its ways, or go out of business.

But what happens in these cases is that everyone suffers before we hit that breaking point. Hell, you can look at what cable companies do in America, where their natural monopoly capabilities are "dealt with" by having them run contracts in various municipalities, such that your township suddenly gets Comcast as its only Cable provider, and then you see the municipalities alone acting as the arbiter of market competition and Comcast gets to screw over the local folks on actual rates (although what got us off Comcast was when they started turning the pressure up for us to get digital cable by kicking essential channels off their analogue cable lineup, a rat tactic of a different mold)

When one farmer charges too much for his beets, its quick and easy to find the next farmer. When your cable company, or worse, your electric company, starts to get uppity, all you get is problems for everyone.