Late Stage Capitalism
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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?"