When I was about 20 I started listening to Sean Hannity, and while I no longer agree with anything he says, I do appreciate the glimpse I got into his way of thinking. I mention this because...

I can't tell you how many times I've heard the idea that success in free market capitalism comes from offering goods and services to customers with the right balance between quality and price, and that good quality and price is assured because of competition in the market.

But now I see that the true path to success is to first gain favor from those who already have wealth and power, and then use their wealth and power to reduce or eliminate competition.

If you can see why the former narrative is inherently appealing to the rich, you should also be able to see why

> But now I see that the true path to success is to first gain favor from those who already have wealth and power, and then use their wealth and power to reduce or eliminate competition.

is attractive to the disaffected (as Nietzsche wrote on). narratives that say the whole thing is rigged are going to be appealing because they offer a non-intrinsic explanation for underperformance.

I see what you mean, but I believe that's more so directed towards the massive scale businesses. Companies that get measured in billions and not millions.

At a smaller scale (the majority of business, but maybe not the majority of revenue), that existing wealth and power is often much smaller and eliminating competition is much less feasible.

Like a local coffee shop, for example. Or a small industry specific software company.

Maybe they matter less in the grand scheme, but they're still a big part of things.

But I do agree with the idea that VC subsidized services to then grip the market and wring them later seem counter productive to a "free market".

I can think of a lot of people who have got on by gaining favour of those who have wealth and power, the Altmans, Musks etc have done some of that. I'm not sure about the wealth and power to eliminate competition though. Tesla, OpenAI etc have competition but mostly out execute it. Or did in the Tesla case.

The government is the one entity with a monopoly on violence. Concerns of regulatory capture, pork, and rent-seeking stem from this one fact.

Yes, you can certainly get wealthy by being corrupt in legal ways.