I think that what you have described for the most part is just basic capitalism which I agree with as generally competitors drive prices down. The diamond industry has some how been allowed to conspire to artificially limit supply and raise prices to a level even the oil industry has not been able to achieve.

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Liftyee 4 days ago | parent [-]

Curious as I'm not too familiar - if what I've described is basic capitalism, then what is today's system like in the US?

Need to look into the differences so I can be precise when debating these things.

New metaphors: "What trim level of capitalism have we got?" "`class ImperfectCapitalism implements Capitalism`" "RNG capitalism modifiers"

	▲	wonderwonder 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		That’s an interesting question one im probably not the most qualified to answer. US capitalism was always based on prevention of monopolies and cartels (which the diamond industry is) and then a generally hands off approach by the government. Which I generally agree with although someone like Thomas Sowell would argue that even monopolies take care of themselves eventually. Unfortunately it’s been somewhat weakened due to lobbying and subsidies such as for ethanol. US probably has the closest to pure capitalism in the world though, again in my opinion. I do recommend Sowell’s book basic economics. Its a trudge but its very educational and written in an easy to understand way