> I've always been a staunch defender of capitalism and free markets, even though that's historically been an unpopular opinion in my particular social circle.

> I've always been a staunch defender of capitalism and free markets, even though that's historically been an unpopular opinion in my particular social circle. Watching the LLM market, I can't help but feel extremely vindicated. Over the last 5 years, the cost per token has been driven down relentlessly even as model quality has skyrocketed. The brutal and bruising competition between the tech giants has left nothing but riches for the average consumer. There's a rich irony to be saying this right after explaining how Google is dominating the market and how they're involved in an antitrust lawsuit for alleged illegal monopolistic practices. And of course this willfully ignores the phase of capitalism we are in with the AI market right now. We all know how the story will end. Over time, AI companies will inevitably merge and the products will eventually enshittify. As companies like OpenAI look to exit they will go public or be acquired and need to greatly trim the fat in order to become profitable long-term. We'll start seeing AI products incorporate things like advertising, raise their prices, and every other negative end state we've seen with every other new technology landscape. E.g., When I get a ride from Uber they literally display ads to me while I'm waiting for my vehicle. They didn't do that when they were okay with losing moeny. And of course, "free market" capitalism isn't really free market at all in an enviornment where there are random tariffs being applied and removed on a whim to random countries. I really don't understand why people feel like they need to defend capitalism like this. Capitalism doesn’t need a defender, if anything it constantly needs people restraining it.