Capitalism in its western form have some restrictions. Some ways of making profit accounted as crime.
- Killing competitor is a crime.
- Theft is a crime.
- Patent infringement is a crime.
- Insider trading is a crime. And so on.
So, capitalism could have restrictions.
What if there could be another capitalism, with another, slightly different set of restrictions?
Say,
- Killing competitor is a crime.
- Theft is a crime.
- Usury is a crime.
- Profiteering (all that stock games) is a crime.
- Intentional limiting of customer in a bought product usage (all that "planned obsolescence", "usage licenses" and "authorized service only") is a crime. with keeping all other freedoms of private business you could find in western capitalism.
Will it still be a capitalism? Do capitalism you defend should have usury and profiteering as essential part of it?
Just asking for a friend who think that western type of capitalism is doomed and sooner or later will be completely demolished by insane elites. So we will have to build new type of capitalism, that have no vulnerabilites that allow creation and existence of elites. :)
What rules and restrictions such capitalism should have to avoid a core possibility of elite formation?
Take in mind, that under "elite" I mean parasitic bastards, like current ones, not a meritocratic elite, like best engineers or best business organizers.
You're 100% right, the whole stock market is just one giant rigged casino. It is so far from the idea of fractional ownership in profits of a company and providing a mechanism for raising capital that I doubt 1 in 100 "investors" could even write this very sentence.
And I very much like your sentiments regarding patents. We have so little regard for sharing as a virtue in Western cultures. I recall hearing about cultures (from the South Pacific, I think) where sharing was most highly regarded. The most highly respected people were the poorest, because they would use all their resources to throw lavish feasts for the community. What a world it would be were that to go global, huh?