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Re:The Anti-Amazon Alliance by rhizome on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @05:39PM (#23012436)
Is it still capitalism with strong antitrust? If so, why do capitalists keep chipping away at and denigrating antitrust laws? What about capitalism's concurrent drive: toward slavery for its workers? What about a third drive: zero taxes? Taken together, what is the benefit of the capitalist ideology at all, and to whom do those benefits accrue?
Re:The Anti-Amazon Alliance by Wowfunhappy on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @05:58PM (#23012636)
> Is it still capitalism with strong antitrust?

IMO, this is like asking "is it still a democracy if the people don't decide on every bill directly?" In a sense, the answer is no–but I still feel comfortable using the word democracy.

I'm going to keep going with this analogy—IMO, idolizing the idea of a completely unregulated market is akin to idolizing the governing structure of ancient Athens. Yes, the rules we've added over the past millennia make us less free in a way—but they also make for a more sustainable system. These refinements are a sign of maturity.

Re:The Anti-Amazon Alliance by rhizome on Thursday April 30, 2020 @02:41PM (#23034472)
I hope that in this light we can agree that using the term "free market" as a cudgel is a sign of immaturity.

I think you're caught up in an is/ought conundrum though: "idolizing the idea of a completely unregulated market" is the discourse! That's the pro-side rhetoric in a nutshell, how bills and laws get passed, and how the (US) economic system is constructed. So don't blame my inference, it's just what I'm reading in the newspaper.