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And it is possible to be far from a free market economy and still be capitalist, because Capitalism and "free market economy" aren't synonymous. Let me cite Wi
by dao- 9y ago
And it is possible to be far from a free market economy and still be capitalist, because Capitalism and "free market economy" aren't synonymous.
Let me cite Wikipedia since it's good enough here:
"Capitalism is an economic system and an ideology based on private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Characteristics central to capitalism include private property, capital accumulation, wage labor, voluntary exchange, a price system, and competitive markets." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism)
- tertius 9y ago> Characteristics central to capitalism The word "central" here implies that this definition, or summary, does not define capitalism per se.
- hueving 9y agoThe ISPs are not operating in "competitive markets", so they are not operating in capitalist markets.
- theseatoms 9y agoThis is the core issue. ISPs rarely compete, so they have little incentive to make their customer's lives better. IMO fixing this should be the central push for the "save the internet" folks.
- dao- 9y agoThe system is Capitalism and the markets exist within it. It makes no sense to claim that some of those markets aren't capitalist for lacking competition. In other words, while competitive markets are a characteristic of Capitalism, not every market within the system needs to have strong competition, especially because another characteristic of Capitalism is that successful competitors tend to crush smaller ones and form monopolies. The ISP market is no anomaly but just another facet of Capitalism.