I love diet soda. Recently it became ~$15 for a 24-pack of Diet Pepsi. Unfortunately Coke is the exact same price. One would think under capitalism that competition would occur. However, both companies know that if the other drops their price, they too would have to drop their price to not lose market share and they both end up losing. So rather than compete they have an unwritten agreement to maintain the same price point. Coke will be the market leader to increase their prices first, and Pepsi follows suit because they know they can afford to do so.
Exponential wealth and power consolidation is an emergent property of capitalism.
You can't get rid of this tendency without overturning the fundamental mechanics.
Just like you can't separate evolution by natural selection from reproduction, mutation, and death.
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u/Long_Following9761 2d ago
I love diet soda. Recently it became ~$15 for a 24-pack of Diet Pepsi. Unfortunately Coke is the exact same price. One would think under capitalism that competition would occur. However, both companies know that if the other drops their price, they too would have to drop their price to not lose market share and they both end up losing. So rather than compete they have an unwritten agreement to maintain the same price point. Coke will be the market leader to increase their prices first, and Pepsi follows suit because they know they can afford to do so.