[Turing_Machine]

> Markets fundamentally drift towards consolidation. Source: the past sixty years.

While I'm in favor of UBI (under certain conditions), the "past sixty years" don't back that up at all.

Fortune's top 10 corporations in 1960 (roughly 60 years ago)

1 General Motors

2 Exxon Mobil

3 Ford Motor

4 General Electric

5 U.S. Steel

6 Mobil

7 Gulf Oil

8 Texaco

9 Chrysler

10 Esmark

Top 10 corporations in 2020:

1 Walmart

2 Amazon

3 ExxonMobil

4 Apple

5 CVS Health

6 Berkshire Hathaway

7 United Health Group

8 McKesson

9 AT&T

10 AmeriSourceBergen

Only one company (Exxon/Mobil) is on both lists. Many of the companies on the 2020 list didn't even exist in 1960.

[piva00]

Sixty years is perhaps too long, neoliberalism really kicked off in the 80s/90s with an increase in globalisation, and corporate consolidation through M&As ramped up quickly in the 2000s after financialisation of the economy went in high gear. If we backtrack to the last thirty to forty years and check which top 20 companies got to that spot through M&As it might paint a different picture.

[Turing_Machine]

1990 list:

1 General Motors

2 Ford Motor

3 Exxon Mobil

4 Intl. Business Machines

5 General Electric

6 Mobil

7 Altria Group

8 Chrysler

9 DuPont

Again, Exxon Mobil is the only overlap with 2020's list. (I presume that the references to "Exxon Mobil" in the 1990 and 1960 lists actually refer to pre-merger Exxon, since Mobil by itself is also on both lists).

I checked, and of the 2020 list, only AT&T, McKesson, and Exxon even existed in 1960 (Berkshire Hathaway kinda did, but they made shirts. Warren Buffet didn't come along and turn it into an investment operation until 1965.

Edit: list formatting.