onlooker wrote:Corruption as part of Capitalism has been endemic and has just gotten worse over time. The oil industry is just a BIG example because it is a big industry. So the bigger the industry the bigger the corruption. Oh and do not forget the Arms industry, just look back at Iran-contra scandal. This as to be one of the biggest corruption laden industries also. Something should be said about the corrupting influence of arms in the hands of governments that have received arms shipments. This encourages oppression within and aggressiveness abroad.
Consolidation is a function of capitalism, not corruption. A capitalist is by definition efficient at accumulating through his capital, NOT through corruption. The corrupt cannot accumulate through extracting labour surplus value so they cheat and lie their way into that stream.
In my job for example, trading is chocka with guys who can't trade if their lives depended on it. The Wolf of Wallstreet is a good example. Put that guy in front of a trading monitor and he would lose his shirt in a second. Put him up before a bunch of pensioners and he would sweet talk them out of their pensions in a sec. He is not a capitalist, he is a feudalist. Feudalists use lies and corruption and falsities like religion to get people to part with their money. Capitalists use an innate skill at innovating and thus extracting labour surplus to prevail.
As the system matures, competition becomes so pervasive that capitalists have to cut costs and wages (deflation) to survive and that destroys the system. Capitalists are no bad, they are innovative revolutionaries who have a sell by date. Feudalists, incompetents are the cancer in our midst...politicians especially who cannot survive in the private sector so they prevail on public money and bribes.