Regulatory capture (occasionally outright banning a superior product, but usually just raising the cost of competition) as well as anti-competition wrapped up in acquisition culture severely impair this.

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t-writescode 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Namely, these and monopolies are the end-stage of unregulated Capitalism. The big guy becomes evil and makes it so no small guy can ever enter the stage again.

It’s a major part of why we have anti-trust law, because the country knew where it would all go.

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WalterBright 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> The big guy becomes evil and makes it so no small guy can ever enter the stage again.

If you look at the top 10 companies by market cap every decade, you'll see the churn in them. The lineup in 1910:

• United States Steel Corporation • Standard Oil Company • American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) • Union Pacific Railroad / Pennsylvania Railroad • International Mercantile Marine Co. • American Tobacco Company • U.S. Rubber Co. • Central Leather Company • Amalgamated Copper Mining Company

And today:

1. Nvidia – ~$4.57 trillion 2. Apple Inc. (AAPL) – ~$4.04 trillion 3. Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL / GOOG) – ~$3.79 trillion 4. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) – ~$3.63 trillion 5. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) – ~$2.70 trillion 6. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC / 2330.TW) – ~$2.14 trillion 7. Meta Platforms Inc. (META) – ~$1.81 trillion 8. Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) – ~$1.57 trillion 9. Tesla Inc. (TSLA) – ~$1.40 trillion 10. Eli Lilly and Co. (LLY) – ~$1.18 trillion

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WalterBright 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> no small guy can ever enter the stage again

Musk showed that to be wrong.

	▲	grubbydiff 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		100%. Musk showed that you don't have to be an elected official in the federal government to be willfully complicit in deaths of hundreds of thousands around the globe.

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strictnein 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Where is this place that has unregulated Capitalism?

	▲	lazyasciiart 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Somalia is the traditional answer.