In a free market system, wealth is created, not concentrated.
No, it does not concentrate wealth. Wealth is not a fixed pie. In a free market, you get wealthy by creating wealth, not concentrating it.
As for monopolies, competition is what prevents them.
If they buy startups, a thousand more will spring up hoping to be bought. Investors love this game.
And if you think undercutting works, read up on the story of Dow and how they broke the German bromine monopoly [1].
There is no such thing as a natural monopoly. Only governments can create monopolies, usually through regulation.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Henry_Dow#Breaking_a_m...
> In a free market, you get wealthy by creating wealth, not concentrating it.
You can do either, or both.
The engine that really drives innovation and wealth creation is regulated capitalism that preserves competitive markets by restraining anticompetitive behavior.
If you’re ideologically attached to capitalism I have good news for you. That’s the approach that leads to its most effective implementation.
If you’re ideologically attached to “market fundamentalism” as I suspect, which is a reflexive opposition to regulation, then this concentrated market structure is what you’re advocating for.
If what you mean by "mafia" is "your signature on the contract or or brains" that is not free market.
Has there ever been a jurisdiction with unregulated capitalism? I'm unaware of any.
Even the most laissez-faire economies have had bedrock legal infrastructure: property rights enforcement, contract law, courts, which is regulation.
Maybe you’re thinking of anarcho-capitalism? But that has never worked at scale.
B creating something has nothing to do with A.
quite.
