It's almost the end of summer for the first annual contest to choose the best operating monopoly in America. Five contestants are selected. Each exhibits fine monopolistic characteristics and is worthy of serious consideration for the award. The U.S. Postal Service claims to be the longest-running monopoly and has the distinction of having its control over First Class mail prescribed by the Constitution. The monopoly has preserved large flows of revenues and high wage rates despite studies showing that private companies could carry the mail more efficiently at much lower cost. On the other hand, the position of the Postal Service has been eroded: first, by successful competition on package delivery; second, by the recent entry of express delivery services; and third, and potentially most damaging, by the introduction of the fax machine. Since faxes are bound to supplant(取代) a substantial fraction of First Class letters, the failure to get Congress to classify a fax as First Class mall and, hence, the exclusive domain of the post office shows a remarkable loss of political muscle. Thus, despite past glories, it is hard to be sanguine(乐观的) about the long-term prospects of the post office as a flourishing monopoly. OPEC was impressive in generating billions of dollars for its members. To understand the functioning of this cartel(卡特尔) it's important to sort out the good guys from the bad. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have typically held oil production below capacity and thereby kept prices above the competitive level. While Libya and Iraq have produced as much as they could and thereby kept prices low. The former were responsible for the vast expansion of oil revenues. But unfortunately, these countries could not keep the other OPEC members in line and were also able to exclude new producers or prevent conservation by consumers. Most cable TV companies have government-issued licenses that keep competitors out. Thus, this business supports the hypothesis that private monopolies aren't sustainable for long unless they have the weight of government behind them. The rapid escalation of prices and the limitations on services seem, however, to be getting customers and their congressional representatives progressively more annoyed. Thus, it would not be surprising if legislative action leads soon to a deterioration of the cable companies' monopoly power. Officials of Ivy League universities have been able to meet in semi-public forums to set rules that determine prices of admission as a function of applicant characteristics, especially financial resources. The universities have more or less successfully applied a high moral tone to the process: Rich applicants are charged more than the competitive price for schooling in order to subsidize(补贴) the smart poor, but it is unclear why this subsidy should come from the smart rich rather than from taxpayers in general. In any event, the universities' enviable cartel position has been damaged by the unenlightened Justice Department. 'Since most of the universities involved have agreed to stop these practices, it may be that future prices for private higher education will come closer to being competitively determined. The final contestant, the NCAA, has been remarkably successful in holding down 'salaries' paid to college athletes. It would be one thing merely to collude to determine price ceilings, but the NCAA has also managed to monopolize all the moral arguments. The NCAA has the much more difficult task of defending a policy that prevents many poor individuals from earning money. Incredibly, this defense has been so successful that it has even allowed the organization to maintain the moral high ground. When the NCAA maintains its cartel by punishing schools that violate the rules, almost no one doubts that the evil entities are the schools or people who paid the athletes, rather than the cartel enforcers who prevented from