Capitalism and monopolism

[Jim Choate]

On Sun, 4 May 2003, James A. Donald wrote:

> On 3 May 2003 at 21:03, Andy Lopata wrote:
> > Simply put, markets lead to consolidation.
>
> So said Marx.  He also said that markets would make the workers
> poorer and poorer.

Because they consolidate, or monopolize.

> Despite the fact that the trend has been in the other direction
> for the past two hundred years,

No it hasn't. Don't confuse a general increase in the level of income with
the consolidation of the -majority- of wealth into a smaller and smaller
percentage of the population as the same thing, they're not.

Markets which are not 'free' in the strictest sense; eg no IP laws or
other protectionist practices to protect the status quo from change - in
other words "because you have it now doesn't mean you'll have it later.

However, there is a problem with strictly free markets in that there is no
mechanism to resolve conflicts or breaches of contract other than
'reputation' which makes and requires assumptions of open access and easy
capture of information -across the entire market for all players-.
Something that really can't happen in the real world. There are time and
distance issues which simply can't be resolved in the real world.

> prophecies with the more confidence, the more obviously the
> facts contradict them.

While they do contradict Marx the facts don't indicate a rosey picture for
the majority as anything other than a wage-slave.


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