[altonzheng]

While I agree with your sentiment that the system is flawed and not serving much of the population, I think the parent's point still stands. If the system was designed solely for protecting wealth, it wouldn't be encouraging competition -- ie. cartels and monopolies would be permitted.

Make no mistake, whatever the goal is, the side-effects are unfortunate.

[thethethethe]

> cartels and monopolies would be permitted

Last time I checked both of these still exist and wield massive power globally. Just because something is “illegal” doesn’t mean that it isn’t part of the system. The system was “designed”, it’s behavior is emergent. States institute laws which have side effects and those side effects are part of the system.

[pmiller2]

Really? You’re gonna tell me cartels and monopolies don’t exist when 10 companies control nearly the entire food and beverage industry? [0] What good is it being able to choose among 195 brands of bottled water [1] when there’s not much of a difference among them? Is this what all our productivity is going towards? Or maybe it’s all that advertising they drown us in to convince us to buy this stuff?

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[0]: https://www.businessinsider.com/10-companies-control-the-foo...

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottled_water

[analog31]

The prohibition of cartels and monopolies is an old law that has been allowed to be gradually weakened.