Comment by autoexec

It isn't just late stage capitalism. Robber barons became a glaring issue with capitalism very early on. People eventually realized that it took regulation and government intervention to correct for that, but the wealthy who wanted to keep peasants doing all the work in their fiefdoms have spent a very long time demonizing and weakening the kinds of government interventions that could keep them in check.

They've managed to con a huge number of people into agreeing that they should have unchecked power and that government (that thing 'we the people' have direct influence on) is the real problem. It's shocking to me how many people fell for it and would rather be ruled over by corporations than government even through they don't get any kind of vote for who their corporate masters are, while we can (ostensibly) vote for our government officials and vote them out if they displease us, replacing them with someone more aligned with our interest.

Increasingly government is either bribed into letting corporations do whatever they want, sabotaged by regulatory capture, or stripped of their power by the people who have either been suckered into voting against their own interests or who fantasize about one day being able to carve out their own fiefdoms full of peasants they can chain and exploit