> I don't see how it concentrates power. There are people who do capitalism poorly, and then they whine about how it was unfair to them.
And the fact that you (and others) can't see how it inherently concentrates power is exactly what's wrong with the current views of pure free-market proponents.
Free markets are bad. Market competition is good. It's that simple and people still don't seem to be able to distinguish them.
The only way to have market competition is to soundly enforce it. Any free market left alone eliminates market competition and consolidates power - that consolidated power then eliminates any efficiency gained from capitalism.
One of the single most important roles of government is to eliminate heavily unbalanced concentrations of power un order to maintain competition.
In the marketplace that means swift eliminating monopolies, in individuals it means maintaining some tempers inequality, and in democracy it means ensuring any concentrated power cannot perform regulatory capture. But you cannot do the latter without ensuring the former two. Everyone seems to recognize regulatory capture and the imbalance of power it involves in democracy, but some how cannot see the exact same issues in the individual or the marketplace. All three require market competition to be healthy and thrive - and aid concentration of power.
> The only way to have market competition is to soundly enforce it.
Which is why NYC taxis are so cheap. All the market competition cultivated by their sale of taxi medallions for $1mil+.
> One of the single most important roles of government is to eliminate heavily unbalanced concentrations of power
I've seen no historical evidence that any government, ever, has even attempted this "role". It would be a little weird if they could manage to do it considering that they are heavily unbalanced concentrations of power themselves.
> I've seen no historical evidence that any government, ever, has even attempted this "role".
It is normal where I am from. We have an entity that govern the competition and its role is to enforce competition whenever a company gains to much market share.
That way us, the consumers can avoid monopolies where we would otherwise not have the voting-power within our wallets.
But I thought we were discussing reality, and not whatever weird fiction you've imagined about those things. That was lip service to the idea, little more. Do you prefer Standard Oil, or Ma Bell where they broke up the national monopoly into a bunch of regional ones with no competition?
And the fact that you (and others) can't see how it inherently concentrates power is exactly what's wrong with the current views of pure free-market proponents.
Free markets are bad. Market competition is good. It's that simple and people still don't seem to be able to distinguish them.
The only way to have market competition is to soundly enforce it. Any free market left alone eliminates market competition and consolidates power - that consolidated power then eliminates any efficiency gained from capitalism.
One of the single most important roles of government is to eliminate heavily unbalanced concentrations of power un order to maintain competition.
In the marketplace that means swift eliminating monopolies, in individuals it means maintaining some tempers inequality, and in democracy it means ensuring any concentrated power cannot perform regulatory capture. But you cannot do the latter without ensuring the former two. Everyone seems to recognize regulatory capture and the imbalance of power it involves in democracy, but some how cannot see the exact same issues in the individual or the marketplace. All three require market competition to be healthy and thrive - and aid concentration of power.