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Yes they are, because any intelligent or rational capitalist will want to avoid competition and form monopolies. Some will succeed, because of economies of scal
by snapcaster 4y ago
Yes they are, because any intelligent or rational capitalist will want to avoid competition and form monopolies. Some will succeed, because of economies of scale incumbents can easily keep out new entrants in many markets. Saying this isn't inherent to capitalism really sounds like the "that wasn't real communism" people. It's something that appears very frequently (always?) in capitalist economies so not addressing it isn't a very compelling argument
- jgalt212 4y agoOK, how about this take: Cartels, monopoly, and regulatory capture are inherent to the human condition.
- snapcaster 4y agoNot sure, "human condition" is poorly defined and we don't have experience of any true human condition that isn't deeply embedded in our current culture. Do un-contacted tribes have these things? Either way, it's not really the point whether it's inherent to human condition. It's obviously a failure mode that can happen in lots of circumstances. I think the difference is that in capitalism it's highly incentivized by economics and culture and capitalism as a system doesn't have many great defenses against it. Anti trust legislation is as you pointed out vulnerable to regulatory capture. I think capitalism stans would have more credibility if they would acknowledge that any complex system for distributing resources will obviously have edge cases and failure modes that need to be addressed. Denying that anything is the system's fault again just sounds like the "that wasn't _true_ communism" people