dohboi wrote:I'm not sure that capitalism keeps oligarchs honest. Oligarchs, once they get powerful enough, inevitably warp all the rules to their favor so they don't have to be particularly honest anymore.
The actual law of oligarchs is that power corrupts and the concentration of power in a few hands also concentrates that corruption. How could it be different? That's why it seems to be to be always in the interests of nearly everyone to look for mechanisms that destabilize or overturn oligarchic power. But maybe that's just me?
The actual, actual Iron Law of Oligarchy was thunk up by Michels in 1911 after he became disillusioned with some political group he'd joined in the 1800s.
https://archive.org/details/politicalparties00michBasically, any organization allowed a hierarchy will breed an oligarchy.
Regardless, I didn't phrase my point well. I simply meant that competition in markets eliminates unprofitable businesses but also the "competition" for the value of the workers labor makes the biz more efficient as well. (Of course, the ownership in a for-profit biz can be as despotic as they can get away with but we know that.)
I think the further you go from a straight for-profit, market based model the less pressure there is to be efficient.
In other setups, like state owned oil Cos, or maybe co-ops, the tendency of any employee to maximize their own take isn't balanced by anyone on the other side of the bargaining table with a similar interest. It is just like any government negotiation, everyone gets what they want because someone else is paying.
Co-ops used to be very popular. Back when there was one feed store in town the owner could basically charge whatever he liked because start up costs for a feed store were high. Ditto grain elevators, meat packers etc. so markups were big. Farmers got together to make pooled purchases and package sales. Of course those pools turned into co-ops. But as these things go in an open market, innovators came along that were more efficient than the co-ops.
I'm not really sure whether co-ops are on the upswing now or down. A couple of years ago was UN "World co-op Year" or some such, they would have more info.
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)