I said this elsewhere too, but the bottom panel depicts something other than capitalism, since capitalism definitionally requires a competitive market.
Companies that are ostensibly in competition but not fighting each other too hard, is just another way of saying they are not in competition. It’s not capitalism.
There’s a whole other group out there who argues that doing anything to stop the bottom panel is communism, and communism is bad and terrible (according to people who have never read anything about it except Ayn Rand). You’ll have to fight with them over what constitutes “real capitalism”.
I’ll be over here noting the whole notion of profits going predominantly to the owner of capital is flawed to begin with.
I said this elsewhere too, but the bottom panel depicts something other than capitalism, since capitalism definitionally requires a competitive market.
Companies that are ostensibly in competition but not fighting each other too hard, is just another way of saying they are not in competition. It’s not capitalism.
There’s a whole other group out there who argues that doing anything to stop the bottom panel is communism, and communism is bad and terrible (according to people who have never read anything about it except Ayn Rand). You’ll have to fight with them over what constitutes “real capitalism”.
I’ll be over here noting the whole notion of profits going predominantly to the owner of capital is flawed to begin with.
I think it’s silly to get caught up in definitions too. Cory Doctorow calls the bottom panel “techno feudalism” and I think that’s pretty good.
The competition exists, but it’s basically just a few megacorporations in each industry. They’re not fighting each other too hard.
That’s because the US hasn’t enforced antitrust law for a few decades. This wasn’t supposed to be allowed to happen.