I don't think that there even needs to be competition (although that works best) - you can make do with two other things: motivated citizens, and a non-corrupt

I don't think that there even needs to be competition (although that works best) - you can make do with two other things: motivated citizens, and a non-corrupt government. Laissez-faire capitalism doesn't work - that's pretty much obvious to everyone, and most people then take the next mental step of realizing that things sufficiently close to laissez-faire capitalism don't work, either. The next realization is then "well, how do you stop yourself from sliding into something "sufficiently close"?" and the easiest answer is through carefully-controlled government regulation motivated by an active populace and a non-corrupt government. Communism advocates, as can be seen in this thread, strategically ignore the fact that the same reasons that we're seeing capitalism "failing" (as this failure is incomparably better than anything seen in communist countries like the USSR and China), which are apathetic citizens and a corrupt government, are necessary preconditions for a socialist/communist model to even have a chance at succeeding - because, of course, they are either shockingly ignorant of history, or they think that they'll be the ones to come out on top and be the leaders of the new authoritarian government.