Late Stage Capitalism
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It can be both
The problem with late stage capitalism, if you ask me, isn't with capitalism, it's with the government
McDonalds charges $7 a hamburger. Capitalism says that if I can make a better hamburger for cheaper, I should. This will force companies to compete keeping quality high and prices low.
The problem is that while I theoretically can make a better hamburger and sell it to you for a dollar, I'm not legally allowed to make a better hamburger and sell it to you for a dollar
I have to get a business license, permits, a kitchen, a place of business, health inspections, etc.... and by the time I get all of this in order I had to take out a small business loan and now I find myself $12k in debt and I have a $3k rent payment due on my kitchen every month and I need to make enough money to pay my own bills at home
I'm so over my head in debt that I can no longer afford to sell my hamburgers for a dollar. I just can't sell enough hamburgers to make enough money to pay off my loans and cover the bills for both my business and my home. I actually sell less hamburgers than McDonalds so now my burgers have to cost $12 or I go broke
So some companies now have a stranglehold on the market. They are so large with so much money they can make worse products and charge more for them because they no longer have any real competition.
So yeah, I could make a bomb ass TV that doesn't come with a bunch of spy devices and advertisements and sell to you for half the price... but the government won't let me
Capitalism isn't the real problem, it's the government
But it's a tricky beast. I mean, don't you like knowing that the kitchen of the place you just ate it isn't full of roaches? Health inspections aren't exactly bad.
So what you need is a government that encourages small business; which is what republicans claim they want to do but never actually do
So yeah, you definitely want socialist programs like health care but when it comes to products you want capitalism, you just want real capitalism. You want the government to hate large corporations as much as you do.
The government should be begging me to make hamburgers and TVs
The debt you describe is due to capitalism. Buying kitchen equipment, leasing commercial land, buying food and supplies, etc. None of that has anything to do with the government.
If you can sell something cheaper, you should? What the fuck is that? Why? You figure out volume and margin and land where you want to be. If people are more than willing to pay five bucks for a hamburger, why sell it for a dollar? If everyone else is selling them for eight bucks and your business is slow due to competition, maybe you lower the price and reduce your margin, but you would go $7.50 or something, right? You wouldn't want to go lower than you have to. Most things are priced at what the market will bear. Maximum profit. Right?
This is where it gets complicated. In theory I could just wheel out my grill to the side of the street, cook up a burger, and sell it to someone walking by for a dollar. If I could do that McDonalds would have some real competition because I could just set up my grill about 10 feet from their parking lot.
No loans, no rent, no permits, no nothing. I don't need to buy a kitchen or pay rent on a building and so I don't need any kind of business loan. I just go to the grocery store, buy some buns and some hamburger meat, and start slinging burgers
But in reality the government absolutely will not let me just wheel a grill out onto the sidewalk and start selling hamburgers
Is that bad? Kind of, but also no. It's good to know that the food you buy from other people came from a clean kitchen and was cooked to some kind of safe standard. However, all of those safety regulations comes at a cost; and that cost is quickly becoming the death of small business which in turn is killing competition which is what makes capitalism good
I'll sell my hamburgers for a dollar because I'm not incredibly greedy and at that price I could probably sell enough of them to make enough money to make me happy. I don't need a yacht. You're apparently incredibly greedy which makes you shit at business. Well, it should. What you want to do is gouge people. You want to give them shit fucking burgers at high prices. But because I'm not a greedy piece of shit, you can't be either. Your $7.50 hamburger business is really going to struggle in a world full of people selling them for a buck.
This is good for consumers because now you have to make a better burger. So quality is high and prices are low
But that's not how it is anymore. Which is why quality is low and prices are through the roof. It's not capitalism that made the world shit, it was the government when they stopped catering to small business and instead focused on pleasing corporations
People do this. You can also get a permit to do this. That is much cheaper than leasing a restaurant and equipping/staffing it. But the restaurant is where the money is and you know it.
You're right, I can do it... if I get all of the permits and inspections
What I can't do is just take the grill I already own, wheel it out to any public place, and start selling burgers
Which means if I want to compete with McDonalds I need permits, licenses, health inspections, a place I can rent to sell at, taxes, proper disposal of waste, etc...
And this adds up. It adds up to a point where I probably don't have the cash on hand to just do it so I need a loan and paying for all of that month after month means I need to charge more for my burgers; or I just simply can't do it
I can't just sell hot dogs on any corner in New York City. While the permits are pretty cheap, they only allow so many of them. So what stopping me from setting up a cart 2 feet away and selling hot dogs for $2 less? The government. I'm literally not allowed to sell hot dogs 2 feet away from that guy. I'm not allowed to sell hot dogs on any street
So what's stopping me from selling you a burger for a buck? The government
Is that bad? Not necessarily. It is nice knowing that the food that I buy is cooked well and not in a kitchen full of cockroaches.
And when it comes to NYC it's nice knowing your street isn't literally lined end-to-end with hot dog carts. But you need the government to make sure they dish out permits for street corners fairly. If the government gives every corner in a 3 mile radius to Nathan's Hot Dogs then Hot Dogs now cost $7 and there's nothing you can do about it
So it's good the government regulates this stuff... however, a government that caters to corporations over small business is a big problem. Doing so kills off real competition leaving you only a handful of mega-corporations that have a stranglehold on the market allowing them to make shitter products and charge more money because, "what are you going to do about it?"