All we see are suggestions that we should go from an under regulated "free market" to a more regulated one. The basic assumption, that market capitalism is the only possible economic system, is never addressed.
Capitalism, by its very nature, tends toward monopoly or oligopoly. Even Adam Smith understood and warned against this. It can't be eliminated, or even protected against effectively. The concentration of firms leads to a concentration of wealth which leads to these firms having excessive political influence. The influence leads to protective legislation designed to further limit competition. This is fatal to a true democracy.
One can go back to the days of the Manchester textile firms, or to the railroad boom in the US in the late 19th Century, or to the present concentration in oil, media and pharmaceuticals to see that nothing changes, even after cycles of populism and "trust busters".
Now that the world is also facing over population and resource shortages, the appropriateness of a capitalist model, which depends upon constant growth and the exploiting of natural resources, cannot continue. The lack of discussion of alternatives will be seen in the future as another instance of "why didn't anyone see this coming?"
To beat my own drum again: After Capitalism, What? Policies not Politics ---- Daily Landscape
So, since eternal rapid growth cannot happen, there needs to be another system. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
Capitalism works by having many firms fail which is a huge waste of resources. This is Schumpeter's "creative destruction", which may yield better products and firms through competition, but does not factor in the waste that occurs during the process.
Some 250 million computers are discarded each year, for example. Now there have been improvements that occurred at a rapid rate because of the turbulence in this field. Compare this to the days when IBM had a monopoly on mainframes and new models came out once a decade.
So I'm not suggesting holding back innovation, but the present system has gone too far. That's why we need to have so free ranging discussions and get away from the mindset which only allows for a "market-based" economy. Policies not Politics ---- Daily Landscape
Take a colony of bacteria. Capitalism is fine for the very start of the colony. Long before reaching the edges of the Petri dish, it must change. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
