But absolutely must ensure that it is free market. Since 90s the biggest threat to free markets is not socialism but monopolies and oligopolies. (Even good social safety net enhance freedom of economic activity).
How some mighty monopolies have fallen. Your examples don't refute GP's point, unless you'd like to assert that monopolies and oligopolies don't exist anymore.
> The greatest lifting of people out of poverty ever seen.
How do you square that with the fact that United States, with your platonic ideal of economic policies, has the highest rate of poverty in the developed world?
>How the mighty monopolies have fallen:
>IBM Sears RCA Intel GE Disney Kmart Kodak Novell Lotus Wordstar AT&T Microsoft
>without any push from the government.
How has Disney fallen? Last I checked, they seem to be doing better than ever, and have gobbled up so many IP franchises they look more like a monopoly than ever (Star Wars, Marvel, etc.).
Microsoft sure hasn't fallen either. Windows isn't quite as dominant as before, but MS got even bigger by moving to cloud stuff instead of just relying on Windows/Office.
Sears was never a monopoly of any kind, that I remember. Neither was Kmart, or Wordstar, or GE. AT&T, formerly Bell, was a monopoly and got a huge push from the government in the form of a forced break-up in the 80s. The AT&T of modern times (the cellular company) was never a monopoly of any sort.
Who cares? The only thing that's important to a company is profitability. I can't be bothered to do any research, but I'm pretty sure MS is just as profitable as ever, if not moreso.
Coming from Norway I highly recommend finding oil and having a socialist government. Great way to make the country rich. Hard for others to reproduce though.
1. An economy driven by physical commodities like oil are susceptible to corruption and stagnation.
2. Norways dependence on oil has prevented it from doing anything meaningful economically or technologically.
I assure you I am not. I lived under communism so I know it’s stench.
It is usually quickly followed by dictatorship though, since force must be used to keep people living under it. Otherwise productive people will naturally pursue prosperity for themselves and their loved ones, which leads straight to capitalism.
Can’t say much for Angola, but Venezuela has been a dictatorship since Chavez took to power. A friend of mine was told to come in to register her passport at the embassy so she could vote in the upcoming elections, her passport was returned a few days after the elections. It’s easy to be elected president when the people who vote against you can’t vote.
There’s China though. Their party is at least called a communist party. I wouldn’t call their politics communism, except for their land ownership laws. Basically a dictatorship, since anyone opposing the government seemingly ends up in prison. Hasn’t seemed to hinder their economic growth.
I agree with the sentiment. But I also think that big companies are somewhat immune to competition for various reasons. And that isn’t a “free market”. So above a certain size, let’s just say $100B in revenue, they need to face consequences like being broken up or higher taxes or whatever. Otherwise anytime someone makes a good product (Slack), a big company can copy it (Microsoft Teams) and bundle it to win the market without the real effort it takes to build a business from scratch.
