> Are there any inherent facets of a free market that prevent such abuses? No, there's nothing about free market which will automatically mitigate this issue.

> Are there any inherent facets of a free market that prevent such abuses? No, there's nothing about free market which will automatically mitigate this issue. Markets are very good at certain things, like delivering goods and services efficiently if certain conditions are met, but they are not some panacea which can magically solve every problem. There are certain cases where markets are not very good at serving a majority of people: for instance in the case of monopolies, or when there are negative externalities which are not priced into the market (for instance it can be profitable for a company to burn a lot of fossil fuels to produce products cheaply, and everyone else suffers the environmental costs). Strict libertarians will disagree with me, but markets alone are not enough. In every example of what we could consider a well-functioning society, the government plays a role in guiding and constraining the market where necessary. Regulatory capture does represent a problem, and is an example of bad government, but that does not negate the need for good government.