I came to this realization of this by deconstructing the ideas of Socialism. I came to the conclusion that both can be bad or good, but it depends on who's hands it is in. If the person who is head of a company or a head of nation cares about people, and not power, then the little man will be happy.If the person wants power, than the little man will suffer. This is true in either cases of government.
Sometimes there is no choice but to have a complete monopoly. If there has to be a monopoly I want it regulated by a democratically elected government, rather than having an institution free to increase price up to the point where some people would be better off getting water from a stream and boiling it using a wood fire like they did in the medieval era instead of pay for piped water.