HeavenlyPossum @HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social
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Or, capitalists can attempt to consolidate their control of markets by cooperating with, or even merging with, their competitors.

And this is precisely what we see in the actual economy, alongside the explosive growth of the scam economy: corporate consolidation.

> “We collect data on the size distribution of all U.S. corporations for 100 years. We document that corporate concentration (e.g., asset share or sales share of top businesses) has increased persistently over the past century. Rising concentration was stronger in manufacturing and mining before the 1970s, and stronger in services, retail, and wholesale after the 1970s.”

bfi.uchicago.edu/working-paper

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A chart, from the linked working paper, depicting the shares of the top 1% and 0.1% of corporations of assets, receipts, and net incomes from 1920 to 2020. All show increases over the last century.
HeavenlyPossum @HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social
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It’s a trope among capitalist ideologues that rising capitalist wealth does not make the poor poorer; rather, capitalists are increasing the overall amount of wealth available to be owned, making everyone better off, or at least no *worse* off.

But that’s not really true, because as the wealthiest among us continue to expand their ownership, they don’t merely accumulate dollars in accounts or material luxuries, but rather ownership of the assets that allow people to be productive in the first place. As the rich get richer, they not only own more stuff, but also the capacity to make more wealth.

Consider that, in 2020, billionaires increased their wealth by $3.9 trillion (businessinsider.com/billionair) while the rest of us became $3.7 trillion poorer (businessinsider.com/workers-lo).

This isn’t just a case of a bunch of people buying a bunch of stuff from those billionaires. Instead, those billionaires exploited our desperation not to sell us anything but to buy up all our assets in a fire sale, taking even more control of our productive capacity.

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Billionaires made $3.9 trillion during the pandemic — enough to pay for everyone's vaccine

The increase in wealth of the 10 richest billionaires could pay for everyone worldwide to get the COVID-19 vaccine, per an Oxfam report on inequality.

www.businessinsider.com · Business Insider

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