me_irl

We've had periods in the US where the government passed powerful anti-trust legislation, broke up monopolies, and even nationalized certain industries. It should be clear from the current situation that this state of affairs didn't last. As long as the underlying economic system allows people to accumulate wealth and then leverage that wealth into power no reforms that oppose the interests of big business will last. Even the Nordic social democratic countries are constantly having to fight austerity policies pushed by their business communities.

The only way to break this cycle is by collectivizing the means of production and abolishing private property (in Marxian economics this refers specifically to the means of production being privately owned and involved in an economic enterprise employing wage labor). I personally believe that social democracy can be an important step in the right direction, but if we stop there it just won't last.