you see this narrative jump up from time to time: this idea that the problem with capitalism is that it is not really capitalism, and that we need real capitalism...

but, reforms made by both the roosevelts were rooted in the idea that markets are impossible, which, by the way, is what they taught me in first-year economics: that the idea of market equilibrium in prefect competition is a naive, utopian, mathematical fantasy and that the reality is that a perfectly free market will *always* quickly combine into an oligopoly or monopoly (which are basically the same thing...) through the collusion of so-called competitors. self-interest seeks to avoid competition, even if it results in a short-term loss; competition is purely destructive, from the top's perspective. collusion is always preferable. so, rather than get market capitalism, you get cartel systems that snuff out competition as soon as it appears.

what bothers me is that this is an insight that was arrived at 100 years ago and is taught in first year, but that the vast majority of the population seems to somehow still be unaware of. holding to market theory is as awful as holding to creationism. it's impossible.

if there's no such thing as a truly free market in real life, you're left with two options if you want to stick with something like the status quo.

you can do what the first roosevelt did, which is smash the cartels up and then follow that by what the second roosevelt did, which is put rules in place to try and create a pretend free market. that is, if spontaneous markets are impossible, then we can create make believe markets that function in the way we think spontaneous markets ought to, but in truth can't. we've learned that this just breeds corruption that undoes the regulation via capturing the agencies, and results in a re-establishment of the cartel system through stealth - which is what we have today.

the other option is to stop pretending that market theory is worthwhile, and just revert back to good old state-funded mercantilism.

the reality is that all three options lead to the same outcome: cartel systems protected by the state. because this is what capitalism actually is.

www.cbc.ca/news/business/robert-reich-saving-capitalism-tpp-1.3256940