But any time someone points out flaws in capitalism, people respond with 'but socialism is worse' or 'planned markets are bad too'. A false dichotomy as clear as you get.
Capitalism has known flaws. That we should name, know and solve. A famous flaw is the pork cycle, which we see at work here.
Pointing out such flaws is good, because it allows us to improve, or at least prepare for. Countering such statements with 'but communism is worse' helps noone.
For me the biggest flaw in capitalism is that it tends to concentrate wealth over the long term, which in turn undermines the "wisdom of the crowd" principle market systems are based on by concentrating buying power in relatively few people.
We could fix this with much more aggressive progressive taxation and still have a system that is fundementally market based and looks nothing like a planned economy.
Indeed! Related, my pet-peeve, is that consolidation eventually leads to monopolisation: concentrating selling power to relatively few companies. The current growth model of most tech-companies hinges on the monopolisation almost entirely.
Free markets have organisations and systems in place to protect against that; which clearly shows that a free market -in its current state- cannot operate effectively without outside intervention. These orgs are only now moving against the 20-th century monopolies, and doing so too late and too little (IMHO).
But, another clear flaw in capitalism and free markets, patched with centralised, planned governments intervening in those markets.
I've become unsatisfied with all of the word salad concerning 'capitalism'. Large organizations tend to work in the same way, government potentially being the largest corporation of all. Communist countries had organizations largely indistinguishable from corporations although the elite might find different ways to pay itself. It's really all a matter of degree.
The eternal fight for resources and status (and hot chicks) gives you convergent evolution in social systems.
Though, fresh pronts of "Pravda" never were. That "Pravda" was a very versatile material: from toilet paper, to packaging material, to building material as packing for cracks in walls, to an underlayer for wallpaper.
