This! Example in motion right now. Government mandates businesses close for covid 19. Amazon gets to continue operating and hugely expands business. Small local businesses go under.
If you learned this in school, you should demand your money back.
Heavy regulation is what creates Crony Capitalism.
The problem with your train of thought is the same problem that ALL Socialists fall into... The system would be perfect if WE get to control it (Regulation). The reality of the matter is that the people you put in charge of Regulation is ALWAYS susceptible to corruption - in Socialism it is the distributing entity (communists), in Capitalism it is the lobbyists (cronies). Both entities are designed to forcibly eliminate competition.
The reason Socialism fails and Capitalism succeeds is that Socialism operates under the initial assumption that everybody works for the good of society (generosity). This is unnatural to humans so Socialism can ONLY succeed if you authorize a big governing entity to check greed. Corruption then permeates the governing entity which gives you Cuba, Venezuela, etc.
Capitalism operates under the initial assumption that everybody works for their own self-interest (greed). But greed is self-regulating because in a muttally agreed transaction, one person's self-interest is limited by the other person's self-interest. Competition to gain a mutually agreed to transaction keeps the power of one supplier/buyer in an environment of scarcity in check... no government required. Where the problem crops up is when a transaction is entered into fraudulently - e.g. suppliers depleting supply to create false scarcity, false advertising, buying up competitors to create a monopoly, etc. This is where a SMALL governing entity becomes necessary. When this governing entity gets bigger, the vector of corruption also becomes bigger (e.g. Twitter paying off Congress to maintain its monopoly against competitors through protections from litigation using regulation). Fortunately, the self-regulating design of Capitalism functions best when this regulatory sector is as small as possible.
Your example of Amazon (pre-pandemic) is actually an example of how limited-regulation Capitalism works. You treated Amazon in the example as the governing body (regulator) which it is not... Amazon is a service supplier governed by US and International laws. The people selling on Amazon is buying Amazon's service. In that transaction, Amazon is the service supplier, the Amazon Vendors are the service buyers. Vendors AGREE to Amazon's terms and purchase the service. And because Amazon and Vendors mutually benefit from the relationship, everybody is happy. Amazon's competitor is Ebay - Vendors can choose to reject the Amazon relationship and go with Ebay instead if Ebay provides a better service. This keeps Amazon incentivized to provide excellent service, otherwise Ebay will eat their lunch. As you can see there is no mention of any governing regulation impacting a Vendor's choice to choose to sell on Amazon or Ebay.
Now, pandemic happens - Steinmart is a brick and mortar service supplier that sells a service to designer labels to carry their products - it's like Amazon but IRL and only a very select Vendor list. Here comes the governing body - the regulators - forcibly eliminating Steinmart's ability to compete against Amazon by regulating Steinmart to lockdown... Steinmart files for bankruptcy. This is a big giant FU to Capitalism by your beloved regulators.
So, where did your Amazon example fail? It is in the idea that Amazon is a regulator - it is not. Amazon has a terms of service. If you don't like the terms of service, you escape to Amazon's competitors that provide better service. Amazon's corruption is self-regulated by its competition. Meanwhile, Regulations is inescapable. People can't choose to buy at Steinmart instead of Amazon because the lockdown is inescapable.
This! Example in motion right now. Government mandates businesses close for covid 19. Amazon gets to continue operating and hugely expands business. Small local businesses go under.
If you learned this in school, you should demand your money back.
Heavy regulation is what creates Crony Capitalism.
The problem with your train of thought is the same problem that ALL Socialists fall into... The system would be perfect if WE get to control it (Regulation). The reality of the matter is that the people you put in charge of Regulation is ALWAYS susceptible to corruption - in Socialism it is the distributing entity (communists), in Capitalism it is the lobbyists (cronies). Both entities are designed to forcibly eliminate competition.
The reason Socialism fails and Capitalism succeeds is that Socialism operates under the initial assumption that everybody works for the good of society (generosity). This is unnatural to humans so Socialism can ONLY succeed if you authorize a big governing entity to check greed. Corruption then permeates the governing entity which gives you Cuba, Venezuela, etc.
Capitalism operates under the initial assumption that everybody works for their own self-interest (greed). But greed is self-regulating because in a muttally agreed transaction, one person's self-interest is limited by the other person's self-interest. Competition to gain a mutually agreed to transaction keeps the power of one supplier/buyer in an environment of scarcity in check... no government required. Where the problem crops up is when a transaction is entered into fraudulently - e.g. suppliers depleting supply to create false scarcity, false advertising, buying up competitors to create a monopoly, etc. This is where a SMALL governing entity becomes necessary. When this governing entity gets bigger, the vector of corruption also becomes bigger (e.g. Twitter paying off Congress to maintain its monopoly against competitors through protections from litigation using regulation). Fortunately, the self-regulating design of Capitalism functions best when this regulatory sector is as small as possible.
Your example of Amazon (pre-pandemic) is actually an example of how limited-regulation Capitalism works. You treated Amazon in the example as the governing body (regulator) which it is not... Amazon is a service supplier governed by US and International laws. The people selling on Amazon is buying Amazon's service. In that transaction, Amazon is the service supplier, the Amazon Vendors are the service buyers. Vendors AGREE to Amazon's terms and purchase the service. And because Amazon and Vendors mutually benefit from the relationship, everybody is happy. Amazon's competitor is Ebay - Vendors can choose to reject the Amazon relationship and go with Ebay instead if Ebay provides a better service. This keeps Amazon incentivized to provide excellent service, otherwise Ebay will eat their lunch. As you can see there is no mention of any governing regulation impacting a Vendor's choice to choose to sell on Amazon or Ebay.
Now, pandemic happens - Steinmart is a brick and mortar service supplier that sells a service to designer labels to carry their products - it's like Amazon but IRL and only a very select Vendor list. Here comes the governing body - the regulators - forcibly eliminating Steinmart's ability to compete against Amazon by regulating Steinmart to lockdown... Steinmart files for bankruptcy. This is a big giant FU to Capitalism by your beloved regulators.
So, where did your Amazon example fail? It is in the idea that Amazon is a regulator - it is not. Amazon has a terms of service. If you don't like the terms of service, you escape to Amazon's competitors that provide better service. Amazon's corruption is self-regulated by its competition. Meanwhile, Regulations is inescapable. People can't choose to buy at Steinmart instead of Amazon because the lockdown is inescapable.