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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe "Free Market" Lie
Simply this: There is no such thing. There is no competition anymore. The heads of all the big corporations create boards and forums and groups and they put themselves on the boards of these groups. They are supposed to be in competition with each other but as a result of participating on these interlocking boards which initiate agendas and policies, they further their interests without harming each other.
Buyers become the sellers too and the sellers are the same as the buyers. More than 30 years ago when I was in law school, the best brains, and hottest law field, was anti-trust law. When is the last time you heard "anti-trust." It's like it doesn't exist anymore.
The people at the top are not in competition with each other. They are setting prices. Like the NFL, where every city can't make the same money, they divide the spoils. It's socialism among the rich.
Meanwhile, they talk about capitalism and free markets, as though the common man can just go out there and sell his wares. The moment you try that, here comes a guy with a badge and gun asking you where your license to do so is.
It's all a big lie. It didn't used to be. I believe capitalism can be a good system. But it has to be regulated. There used to be rules against owning too many things in a market. Now the same person can own the radio station, the tv station, the newspaper, magazines, etc. etc. etc.
Socialism is okay as long as it's for the filthy rich. It's no market "capitalism" for the rest of us slugs.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)"They (the moneyed elite) want people to be poor and broke and suffering and still paying off their loans and buying their crap. I do not know how this is supposed to work."
Solomon
(12,321 posts)Now they give you just enough to pay for your own room and food, with nothing if anything left over to pull yourself up. Put you in debt and you have no choice but to keep slaving away.
Trillo
(9,154 posts)We are so far down the rabbit hole of dominionism or authoritarianism, it's really hard to understand where to start fixing the problems.
Myself, I believe the only thing that will fix our broken system is an amendment to make clear that personhood is meant for people and humans, not for corporations. Movetoamend has a good one.
Every other fix seems like it's just designed or written to fail by the suit and tie crowd. By never fixing the real problem, and endless stream of fixes can be created.
Solomon
(12,321 posts)corporations with "citizens". For example, if I work for IBM, then I'm a "citizen" (read "slave" of IBM. If you work for Coca Cola, you're a citizen of Coca Cola, and so on and so forth.
randome
(34,845 posts)The layers of bureaucracy in corporations is staggering.