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bmicraft | on: SpaceX bond worth 10% less than issue price – heading for junk bond status
Ah yes, because capitalism in it's purest form would never have companies form monopolies and lobby governments for favorable legislation.
adrianN | parent | next
Is there even a government under true capitalism or is it more like the lunar anarchy described in „the moon is a harsh mistress“?
wredcoll | root | parent
What even is "true capitalism"?
danudey | root | parent
Usually "true capitalism" means one of two things:

1. Capitalism where there is no government or regulatory interference, and the "invisible hand of the free market" produces some kind of utopian society based purely on every business abiding by rules enforced by no one, where somehow corporations don't take advantage of workers they way they do now despite there being no laws against it.

2. The same thing but sarcastically because it's obvious that that system would be demonstrably worse than the restricted version of capitalism that we have now.

leonidasrup | root | parent
The "invisible hand of the free market" works only, if you have many market participants competing one against another. When a participant wins the competition you get monopoly, when multiple participants collude you get oligopoly, or cartel. Market can not solve this.

Historical examples:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM_price_fixing_scandal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPEC

pessimizer | parent | next
Under True Capitalism™, cartels could do their price fixing on reality shows.
overtone1000 | root | parent
End stage True Capitalism™ is when you have to subscribe to a streaming service to watch as the streaming service cartel fixes their prices.
shevy-java | parent | next
Where does capitalism mandate corruption? Yes, it is not realistic to assume there is no corruption, but capitalism in and by itself does not mandate corruption.

Obviously this all falls apart when capitalism can buy legislation. We are seeing how the USA is currently eroded by a few oligarchs.

tavavex | root | parent | next
They're not saying it 'mandates' it as law, but that the systematic incentives inevitably lead to corruption. The ability to buy government is irrelevant - this is just the easiest method right now of converting money into power. If there was no government to buy, private business would execute that conversion themselves by ruling over people and enforcing their wishes directly.
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pasc1878 | root | parent | next
Anything that involves humans will have corruption.

Society needs somethings to try to stop corruption wehther government rules or non government actions.

Under pure capitalism what stops this?

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