Zhongyuan Huaneng Company under Cao Cao is the largest power supply company in China. 80% of the country's electricity is controlled by Zhongyuan Huaneng Company. Cao Cao always wanted to raise the price of power supply, but he couldn't find the opportunity and was in a hurry, so it was difficult to start. This time, when the prices of other things and coal went up, Cao Cao took the opportunity to raise the electricity price. Zhang Fei was so angry that he went to the streets to buy candles that he must resist Cao Cao's rise in electricity prices. However, although the price of candles has not increased much, after all, lighting candles can not save much electricity. Except for a few light bulbs, other electrical appliances are essential. Therefore, although Zhang Fei is in a hurry, there is nothing he can do to save electricity by candles, and he can't save more than a catty of old vinegar a year.
Cao Cao's behavior is a typical monopoly.
If an enterprise is the sole seller of its products and there is no similar substitute for its products, then it is a monopoly enterprise.
Under the condition of monopoly market, resources are owned by one enterprise, and the price is determined by one enterprise, so monopoly naturally occurs.
. In fact, Cao Cao monopolized not only the electricity price, but also the supply of tap water. Because it is impossible for two companies to lay two sets of water pipe networks in one city and enter every household at the same time. That is the biggest waste of resource allocation. At present, the supply of electricity, gas and tap water belongs to natural monopoly industries. The same is true of cable TV networks. A company does the least amount of work. If two or more TV networks enter the home at the same time, the laying of cables will cause great waste.
Some economists like to associate natural monopoly with economies of scale, and think that economies of scale often exist in markets with natural monopoly nature.
Economies of scale means that under a certain technical level, the production of a commodity must reach a certain scale in order to minimize the cost and maximize the efficiency of resource utilization.
If the market does not reach a certain scale because of competition, the utilization efficiency of resources will be greatly reduced, resulting in uneconomical scale.
If two companies set up power lines on the streets of a city at the same time, one of them will send electricity to one user and the other will send electricity to another user next door, which is definitely inefficient. Power supply has obvious economies of scale, similar to telecommunications, radio and television, and the Internet. Technically, these all require economies of scale. If it is run by a company, it must be the most efficient. But, in fact, our situation is much worse than this. In the residential areas of the city, many holes have been repeatedly punched in the walls of every household. Today is the telephone line, tomorrow is the cable of TV, and the day after tomorrow is the internet connection. The signal terminals of these various networks show the intricate signal networks of various cities. In fact, these networks can be technically solved by a unified cable, but because they belong to different management departments, several networks are repeatedly laid and monopolized. For a city, for many years, it has been seeing paved roads and repeatedly digging, either laying various pipelines or burying various networks. For home users, they are exploited by different monopoly organizations.
On the contrary, if the network with the same signal is competed by two companies, it is not a bad thing for consumers. In the market, as long as there is competition, consumers can get consumer surplus. However, as long as it is a monopoly, consumers will always be in a passive position. Cao Cao's monopoly on electricity prices made Zhang Fei lose his temper.