> "I'm not sure laissez faire capitalism if there is such a thing has proven it doesn't consolidate into monopolies or cartels." capitalism isn't uniquely pron

> "I'm not sure laissez faire capitalism if there is such a thing has proven it doesn't consolidate into monopolies or cartels." capitalism isn't uniquely prone to monopolies or cartels. all economic systems face problems of gaming, because humans relentlessly probe weaknesses in systems to gain advantage. and capitalism doesn't attempt to address monopolization head-on and instead relies on competitive dynamics and invisible hands to control the problem. and to be sure, in many cases, it's been enough, but runaway market dynamics like network effects do occasionally overwhelm those mechanisms. we now have enough practical experience to realize that those occasional runaway trains accumulate and we no longer have very free markets across the economy. that's why governments step in with regulation (yes, regulatory capture is a problem too) and laissez faire capitalism simply isn't viable long-term. we should iterate on market-based economies beyond capitalism to reach a more resistant economic system (capitalism =/= market economy, which is a commonly misunderstood). edit: note that you can have a market-based economy featuring choice and competition without it being capitalism, who's defining feature is putting the means of production into the hands of the (moneyed) citizenry.