[amilios]

I understand the point you're trying to make, but frankly I'm not convinced that monopolies/oligopolic collusion aren't an inevitable end result of any ostensibly "competitive" market environment. Given that capitalism on a fundamental level is about profit maximization, and monopolies/vertical integration/oligopolies and other similar situations are the inevitable most effective way to achieve this, how do you avoid this sort of thing in any system that can be described as capitalistic? I'm thinking especially of situations like telecoms, where the barrier to entry is impossibly high and so new players in the market just aren't a thing that happens (easily).

[clairity]

i'd posit that very few markets have natural winner-take-all characteristics (even infrastructure can be market-based, with the right conditions, e.g., tokyo public transportation), and consolidation (vertical or otherwise) is not an inevitable outcome in free and fair markets because you'd need to obviate them away in the course of leveling the playing field.

for instance, look at many of the markets of the 70's, just before trickle-down ushered in decades of greed-driven regulatory disembowlment. markets work best when there are 7-9+, if not dozens of, mostly mid-sized competitors. outsized profit conditions are meant to be fleeting, as a temporary reward to encourage constant exploration, risk-taking, and creation (and creative destruction).