Han wrote:

A prudent businessman pays his labor force the minimum each is
willing to take. In many cases, if he pays them more, they'll simply
spend it on drugs or buy a motorcycle and adios.

Eventually, even the riobber barons didn't get away with all of it.

Yep. Take the classic case of John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil. Standard
Oil became a monopoly, but what did it accomplish?

It single-handedly drove down the price of Kerosene from $3.00/gallon to
five cents. In only three years. Now just who was hurt by this effort? The
whale-oil suppliers went out of business and candle makers took a hit. But
for millions of others, the night became bearable.

This, of course, was unacceptable. Standard Oil wasn't fair to the whalers
and candle-makers (and to the drillers and shippers and refiners of oil).
Nothing for it but to break up the company.

The ONLY monopolies that screw the general public are the ones sanctioned by
the government (think cable tv). Virtually all other monopolies, and the
really rich folks who run them - the modern day "robber barons", are a boon
to the average person.