One certainly can’t just put a bow on blaming cronyism and assume that capitalism without cronyism would just work (which is what the title implies…. And the ar

One certainly can’t just put a bow on blaming cronyism and assume that capitalism without cronyism would just work (which is what the title implies…. And the article hedges but still kind of implies). Capitalism eventually leads to some pretty unbalanced outcomes as the distribution of profit to the factors of production shift, and it’s not clear that those imbalances would stabilize/correct without extreme intervention (e.g., illegal acts, revolution). We’re seeing a shift to greater distribution for labor, but that’s after a very long period of favoring capital that doesn’t seem so much to be breaking down as giving way just a tiny bit (like a pressure release valve). In a fully automated farming, manufacturing, and delivery future, it’s hard to see how capitalism alone would allow for the maintenance of a functioning society. Such conditions would heavily favor engineering/design, raw resources, and (most of all) capital over physical labor. And, of course, any practical regulation will be imperfect and will lead to functional cronyism as a result of imperfect people working to craft evolving and imperfect laws…