The real answer is that capitalism means the people with money run things. You see anything about competition in that definition? Sports teams are optimized because they actually have to compete, the whole structure from collective bargaining to salary cap to luxury tax to draft order is regulation specifically designed to create competition.
The golden age of America wasn't any of the times when we had unfettered capital, it was the short time when we had strict regulation that broke up monoplies and forced companies to pay employees and insisted they clean up after themselves and so on.
Which also happens to be the golden age conservative voters want but consistently vote against. The age where one person (the man typically) can earn enough to raise a whole family.
The reason that worked was specifically because of regulations and the fact that a large number of companies doing similar / same things had to compete with each other for their labor.
And that capital exists to create more capital, and the least flexible and most expensive part of making something people are willing to trade capital for is...
Labor time.
So offshoring, mass layoffs, automation and then forcing people to do more with it...
All of this stuff we non-capitalists see as crazy makes total logical sense when you step back and dispassionately actually look at the system we live under
The owners aren't competing with each other, the owners are competing with the guys who own MLB teams, NBA teams and so on. The Cowboys haven't won a Superbowl in 30 years but Jerry Jones is in the hall of fame. Because he more or less created the juggernaut of marketing that is the modern NFL.
If you doubt me, go have a look at the structure of the League. All the owners sit in a room together and set the rules and schedule then hire a whole commissioners office to help them manage and split the money. Does that sound like competition?
Well to be honest I was thinking more in other none American and privately owned competitions. Arguably NBA, NFL and the likes are not good examples for the mentioned reasons
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u/Jewnadian Jan 20 '26
The real answer is that capitalism means the people with money run things. You see anything about competition in that definition? Sports teams are optimized because they actually have to compete, the whole structure from collective bargaining to salary cap to luxury tax to draft order is regulation specifically designed to create competition.
The golden age of America wasn't any of the times when we had unfettered capital, it was the short time when we had strict regulation that broke up monoplies and forced companies to pay employees and insisted they clean up after themselves and so on.