[Red_Leaves_Flyy]

Capitalism 101 explains that the consolidation of capital is necessary to maximize the capital extracted from customers. Basing our entire economy on a few average people handling the assets of billions is bound to go disastrously wrong. As we have seen cyclically for decades now. Does a bank exist that hasn’t knowingly laundered organized crime money, paid bribes, or otherwise engaged in substantial white collar crime? I cannot find one.

Credit unions are superior and their disparate ownership structure is a key reason why.

[mym1990]

Capital is only one side of the coin, competition is the other. Competition ultimately drives capital distribution.

[Red_Leaves_Flyy]

>“The unbridled, competitive free markets that the Right cherishes don’t exist today. They are a myth.” Furthermore, “The Left attacks the grotesque capitalism we see today, as if that were the true manifestation of the essence of capitalism rather than the distorted version it has become.”

https://www.cato.org/regulation/fall-2019/myth-capitalism

I’ll posit that this am academic flight of fancy or distinction without a material difference. The fact is there’s no meaningful competition in the American economy, whether it’s called capitalism or socialism for the rich and debt peonage for the rest.

[specialist]

> maximize the capital extracted

Cause and effect may be the reverse.

Capitalism simplifies and commodifies, to extract more of the surplus.

Consolidation is often rationalized with the goal to "reduce redundancies" (and passing the "savings" onto consumers, naturally).

[Red_Leaves_Flyy]

It’s an ouroboros, a cancer. One leads to the other and back again until everything has been extracted and the house of cards collapses in on itself and the survivors fight over the scraps to repeat these mistakes over again. The sooner mindless growth is reigned in and economic targets are forcibly aligned with reality, involving hard reality checks for very powerful and very despicable (subject of many articles trending on HN this past week) the better we’ll all be.