[rgarrett88]

I think the failure is in the tax code. Large corporations able are able hire expensive lobbyists and accountants to pay much lower taxes than smaller upstarts. This gives them an advantage and allows them to crush innovative smaller companies before they can scale. Until we fix the tax code to favor small businesses this problem will continue to grow.

[shawnee_]

Tax code isn't really a problem for companies that have little to no profit -- which is most "small upstarts". The great fallacy of most political debate on economics is that taxes hurt small business. Extortionate rents hurt small businesses far more than taxes do.

The way the original tax code was written was to give either individuals or the small businesses they work for a break -- up to a certain point [source: https://books.google.com/books?id=ogUNAAAAYAAJ&printsec=fron...]. But to necessarily kick in at some critical point where 1 + 1 = 1. This is a theoretical stage where potential for exploitation deserves a slight downward pressure (partnerships operating as a single business unit, corporations of 1+ people subjected to a single tax bill). Tax higher incomes at higher rates ... makes sense: Try and keep disproportionate wealth all to yourself, pay more in taxes (forced payments to social welfare). Generously reward your workers, and hey -- it's theoretically possible to pay everybody decently, reward external shareholders, and to minimize tax paid to the social welfare system.

But the problem is REITs, especially private ones. And especially when VCs are the landlords; they're making money even when "they're not" making money.

Which is the core of the issue that rgarrett88 got: lobbying - yes. The NAR, especially. But that's another tangent entirely.