this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five
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IIRC, Adam Smith (from "Wealth Of Nations") decried rent-seeking behavior and implicitly defined a "free market" as one without (free of) rent-seeking, as a form on monopoly, among other things.
So, yes, it was a recognizable problem in Capitalism before it was ever given name, and I wasn't trying to deny that, just to note that the whole time I've been alive it's consistently gotten worse.
As it has gotten worse my whole life. Adam Smith could have never have conceptualized mega corporations. In fact, corporate law at that time would have never allowed for them to exist.