[American biased post, because that’s what I know and where I am]
Been screaming that capitalism is not the problem you are experiencing. Monopolies, or more to the point, cartels, have exploded in scope over the past 40-years. Think of a company you hate, a company that’s fucking you over, a company that’s fucking us ALL over. Bet they fit the bill.
Hate your job at Lowe’s? Go to Home Depot! wait… There’s a great family-owned, local hardware store, but I can’t afford to shop there.
Walgreens piss you off? Just go to CVS! well damn… New local pharmacy chain is really nice! They can’t take my insurance.
If you’re under 40, or maybe even under 50, I cannot relate how alien this all is, the words fail me. If you’re in your 20s or 30s, it’s easy to think it was always like this. Oh hell no it was not.
Along with allowing corporations unlimited political “speech”, i.e. campaign contributions, the proliferation of cartels will go down in history as America’s failing point. (Basically the same thing?)
News like the current entertainment mergers didn’t fucking happen. And here on lemmy we’re talking, with a straight face, about the ups and downs of the Netflix/Warner Bros./HBO merger. And if you’ll remember, Warner Bros./Time Warner/AOL was the largest merger in US history!
Economics, as an intellectual discipline, is closer to theology than physics. Much like religion being arbitrary rules cherry picked from schizophrenic Bronze Age fan fiction, current economic models are built as narratives manufactured to justify the existence, position, and legitimacy of a ruling class. Finance is merely mythology shrouded in enough mathematic formulas to provide the appearance of a natural, universal legitimacy.
Capitalism is absolutely the problem, but I don’t consider replacing it with something else, or eliminating it to be a viable response. My biggest problem with capitalism, and all economic systems, is the lack of consent. Capitalism should be tolerated only when conducted by those who have actively chosen to be exposed to it. Let them play in an air tight bubble where they have to recycle their competitively manufactured farts.