[philipov]

I was talking about Actually Existing Capitalism, not hypothetical scenarios that don't obtain in the world we're subjected to. It is a diagnosis, not a theoretical law of nature.

When it comes to communicating, the meaning of a word is how it is used in practice. Use creates meaning. In practice, capitalism means ownership by investors. In the world that exists, the Capitalist Class is the Investor Class, and the dynamics created by this reality have caused non-hypothetical products to be ruined time and again.

Proprietorships and partnerships where the management is also the owner(s) are an older economic system that predates the innovations of modern capitalism. Even businesses that begin this way commonly seek investment capital, get bought out or go public. The ones that don't are considered stable and therefore uninteresting, such as lawyers, but private equity will eventually gobble them up too.

If you look at the products that have avoided enshitification, they are the ones that have avoided or subjugated investors.