Not really, just ignorance like so many others. The reality is that a crony-capitalist system has allowed inequality to flourish and technology is lightyears ahead of legislation. One of the primary roles of government is to ensure a fair and orderly system of commerce. That includes enforcement of all laws for all participants, including removing barriers to entry - something Bezos, and technology in general, have successfully prevented when working with cowardly (bought) politicians.
This seems to me like a natural development of capitalism. As capitalists grow in power and influence, they get control of the government and other public institutions, and they tend to cohere because of class interest. Why should they support a fair and orderly system of commerce when they can do better with an unfair or disorderly system? And if the winners tend to win, inequality is assured and is in fact considered by many to be a desirable arrangement. Even light interference with the arrangement (for example, the New Deal) is often bitterly resented and vigorously opposed.
Pure capitalism is a system that consumes itself, ending in feudalism. It starts out with many players in open competition and slowly the smartest and luckiest buy out the others until there are a few megaplayers that monopolize markets. Pure capitalism never worked well in early America. There were booms and busts every 20 years and resulted in robber barrons ruling everything - Rockefeller, Carnegie, JP Morgan, etc. Teddy Roosevelt broke the trusts and graduated income tax with Sherman Antitrust laws helped to control greed. Those were the glory days of capitalism. Unfortunately, antitrust laws were not used for decades and the 4,000 pages of tax loopholes destroyed graduated income tax laws. Sadly we are back where we started in 1900.
Base instincts in humans won't allow pure capitalism to work and the tradeoff is declining freedoms as regulations increase. Capitalism is superior as an economic system when participation is highest and regulations are evenly distributed, something that has been declining for decades, possibly signaling an ultimate socialist outcome in the U.S. The irony: in all systems it's believed that elected officials will/can fix this but very few have the altruistic ability to put citizens first and instead, those same base instincts create the marriage of politician and corporation to give us our current crony-capitalism..
Necessary fixes: reverse Citizens United ruling. It is a super highway of corporate money into politics. Reinstate Glass Steagle banking laws. Get rid of all digital currencies. Fix a broken election system.
You don't have to fix a system if it isn't broken. From the point of view of capitalists, cycles of booms and busts may may be opportunities for profit. One of my generationally distant relatives became quite well-off during the Great Depression. Of course millions suffered, but never mind; World War 2 was waiting in the wings.
As a "liberal" friend said to me - "you're just jealous".
Arrogant blindness
Not really, just ignorance like so many others. The reality is that a crony-capitalist system has allowed inequality to flourish and technology is lightyears ahead of legislation. One of the primary roles of government is to ensure a fair and orderly system of commerce. That includes enforcement of all laws for all participants, including removing barriers to entry - something Bezos, and technology in general, have successfully prevented when working with cowardly (bought) politicians.
This seems to me like a natural development of capitalism. As capitalists grow in power and influence, they get control of the government and other public institutions, and they tend to cohere because of class interest. Why should they support a fair and orderly system of commerce when they can do better with an unfair or disorderly system? And if the winners tend to win, inequality is assured and is in fact considered by many to be a desirable arrangement. Even light interference with the arrangement (for example, the New Deal) is often bitterly resented and vigorously opposed.
Pure capitalism is a system that consumes itself, ending in feudalism. It starts out with many players in open competition and slowly the smartest and luckiest buy out the others until there are a few megaplayers that monopolize markets. Pure capitalism never worked well in early America. There were booms and busts every 20 years and resulted in robber barrons ruling everything - Rockefeller, Carnegie, JP Morgan, etc. Teddy Roosevelt broke the trusts and graduated income tax with Sherman Antitrust laws helped to control greed. Those were the glory days of capitalism. Unfortunately, antitrust laws were not used for decades and the 4,000 pages of tax loopholes destroyed graduated income tax laws. Sadly we are back where we started in 1900.
Base instincts in humans won't allow pure capitalism to work and the tradeoff is declining freedoms as regulations increase. Capitalism is superior as an economic system when participation is highest and regulations are evenly distributed, something that has been declining for decades, possibly signaling an ultimate socialist outcome in the U.S. The irony: in all systems it's believed that elected officials will/can fix this but very few have the altruistic ability to put citizens first and instead, those same base instincts create the marriage of politician and corporation to give us our current crony-capitalism..
Necessary fixes: reverse Citizens United ruling. It is a super highway of corporate money into politics. Reinstate Glass Steagle banking laws. Get rid of all digital currencies. Fix a broken election system.
┬лNecessary fixes: reverse Citizens United ruling┬╗
That would take a constitutional amendment: in the USA currently paying serving politicians a retainer is a constitutionally protected human right.
You don't have to fix a system if it isn't broken. From the point of view of capitalists, cycles of booms and busts may may be opportunities for profit. One of my generationally distant relatives became quite well-off during the Great Depression. Of course millions suffered, but never mind; World War 2 was waiting in the wings.
Lend Lease paid off our depression debts.
No argument here.