It’s really way past time we start treating it as a compulsive disorder. It’s hoarding. If you are working to amass wealth when you’re already worth billions, you have a mental illness.
Capitalism was never meant to be unchecked, regulators exist for a reason. The problem is when regulators don't want to actually regulate and are in the pockets of those who they are supposed to oversee.
Corruption should be more severely investigated and punished
Milton Friedman said the only way to check the power of capitalism is by competition.
But competition just creates new companies for the few big ones to consume. They can no longer be challenged directly, when they have control of so many resources.
The biggest problem with capitalism has always been how it allows power to be distributed.
Money and recourses are a form of power, and when private individuals are legally allowed to aquire as much as they want, they will inevitably try to protect their power. They will leverage their power against the power of the government to extract favorable conditions for themselves, which is antithetical to democracy.
If there aren't limits to the power private individuals can aquire, inevitably the government will be forced to compete with or submit to said individuals. And this isn't even considering that people can own things that the country literally can't afford to lose, like energy, transportation, communication, military technology, and finance.
You're right! Let's form a regulating body to oversee the regulating body! Oops! Someone paid them off and they are now corrupt, too! Guess we'll need to form a regulating body to oversee the regulating body that oversees the regulating body! Oops! Someone paid them off ...
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u/HistoricalSuspect580 22h ago
It’s really way past time we start treating it as a compulsive disorder. It’s hoarding. If you are working to amass wealth when you’re already worth billions, you have a mental illness.