Your right, I am uneducated. But if you want to think that capitalism is man's greatest and most pure invention than go on, drink it.
The extent of your education was revealed by the charges you levied, but thanks for the info.
Capitalism does not revolve around consuming all of your competitors, and an explanation of that fact should obviated by all of the anti-trust and anti-monopoly laws that exist in nearly every country. Market-based capitalism is about leaving property in the hands of individuals, and allowing those individuals to seek whatever profit or non-profit model they want. Like sport, competition is mandatory at all times or progress stalls.
The rise of mergers and acquisitions is a response to global competition, and if you look beyond the horizon, you'll see that the amount of global competition has not waned appreciably. The problem for developed nations is that our regulators have essentially granted monopolies and oligopolies in our domestic markets so that domestic companies have the economies of scale needed to compete for emerging markets.
The US, in particular, has been a driving force behind this phenomenon for two reasons. First, the United States is competing against companies who receive lots of indirect government subsidies. China manipulates their currency. Japan traditionally manipulates their steel industry and other inputs of production. Europe subsidizes healthcare and education costs for the middle class to create cost-effective skilled labor. Because the United States electorate is generally quite uneducated on commercial matters, the United States tends to handicap its corporations and laborers, which is a legacy of our unopposed status as the commercial superpower following WWII. Bit by bit we have dismantled our corporate enterprises, particularly manufacturing, in order to enjoy social frivolities.
To combat the desecration of American businesses and workers, we have loosened the reins on mergers and acquisitions so corporations could utilize economies of scale. Then we loosened the reins on credit so they could leverage themselves. Then we started deficit spending to combat foreign subsidies and stimulate domestic production. In order to remain competitive with the US, all developed economies have followed suit.
The problem is not capitalism. The problem is that the US economy is shooting uppers to carry the burden of our inefficient entitlements, which get worse with each passing election cycle. The rest of the world is basically forced to follow suit, even if it means they have to drive over the cliff with us, as seen in the global credit meltdown. The latest administration has basically made our absurdly high per-capita healthcare costs the law of the land, and now we are trying to drill our way to prosperity (don't believe me? look at US and Canadian oil production). Welcome to the new America, exactly the same as the old America. Handicapping industry. Wildcat drilling. Creating new entitlements we can't pay for that accomplish next to nothing.
Mergers and acquisitions have little to do with capitalism, and everything to do with American democracy, the American regulatory environment, mandatory Federal spending policy, the abhorrent lack of education on this planet regarding market-based economies and private capital, and the codependency of other 'Western' economies on the United States.
Now if we could please get back to the topic on hand.
