The trouble with capitalism is that it can very quickly devolve into an oligarchy. That route is, of course, through mono/duopoly, which is when one or two entities control something that is precious to the nation and society, dovetailing neatly into a cartelisation, followed by predatory behaviour, which usually starts from nibbling at the edges, but very quickly works its way to the centre of the entire system, controlling the whole system, indeed, by becoming the system themselves.
The only way to control this is through a political system that checks capitalism’s natural tendencies. We have found that democracy is possibly the least evil system.
How that works is that people’s representatives, elected fairly using a tried-and-tested and transparent system, conducted by ideologically agnostic machinery and monitored by impartial observers, along with trained and experienced bureaucrats, chosen through an objective, regular, and well-structured examination system and trained rigorously in management, administration, and governance, appoint subject-matter experts, as evidenced by objectively attained and universally accepted academic qualifications to groups that advice the elected representatives to frame such rules as to create regulation, oversight, and monitoring of all capitalistic activity so that the end result of such activity may benefit the larger public good, enabled by a non-partisan armed constabulary, paid for through taxes colected from the public, to enforce such laws, and a disinterested but empathetical judiciary to apply the very same laws fairly and equally, all of these institutes being watched constantly by a sceptical and mostly adversarial media which is incentivised to uncover any irregularity to report to the very public that, in turn, elects the representatives that are chosen to guard their interests in this circular system of check and balances.
Now, if one of the parts of this democratic system gets damaged or bent, other parts compensate by helping it recover, ensuring that the entire system is never completely broken. This mostly happens because any corrupting influence moves very slowly, giving time for the rest of the system to immunise itself and counterattack.
Some time ago, technology created extremely rich people who had the resources and motivation to break the system so that they could take over. However, because of the built-in immune system that inhibits any such complete ownership by halting its slow spread, they were handicapped. This was until social media, combined with the power of AI, appeared on the scene.
And now, we have not just billionaires, which we always had (even if the billion is a late-comer in this inflation-ridden world), but billionaires who control social media, which allows them the speed to deploy their resources with such agility that the system, slow-moving my design, cannot adapt to quickly enough to fight off.
I suspect that soon, a handful of billionaires with technology, social media control, and AI will take over the world, destroy democracy, and create a situation where they will own everything that is worth owning. We are already seeing the rise of these oligarchs.
What they don’t realise is, I believe, that, like virii, their parasitic activities, once in total control of their host, will be the cause of the destruction of the very thing they need for their survival—humanity. When everyone is a slave, there is no one left for you to sell to. When you have reduced everyone to poverty, there are no customers. No one to buy your products. No one to buy your stock. And then, the only thing left is to turn on each other. Like two predators who have eaten every other animal on their island but themselves. And what happens when one of them eats the other, and there is only one left now? It dies of starvation, killed by its own hunger.
In a way, their quest, or should I say, hunger for total control, has the seeds of their own downfall.
