If you’re ever trying to convince a friend on the fence about capitalism, try leading with recommending “The Man Who Broke Capitalism.” (If they read books, like some kind of nerd)

The author doesn’t quite make the next leap but it describes the problems with our modern interpretation quite well.

We are dealing with a really not great situation currently. Capitalism has become an all gas no breaks situation but that wasn’t always the case. Like there didn’t used to be many billionaires not because of inflation but because you had a lot of cooling effects. Banks in the US used to not be able to invest with the funds of the individual patrons. They could only invest with their own funds which made banks very stable in comparison to now. Being taxed 70% personal income at the top bracket also had an effect. After awhile aiming for profits just brought diminished personal returns so what they did was reinvest those funds elsewhere in their own businesses. Offering competitive wages to attract better labour, providing kickbacks to customers to foster brand loyalty, donating to create things like museums, parks, halls and university amenities.

Not to say it was at all perfect. Like those resources tended to be very personal glory focused and fell often along classist and racist lines but it did mean that you didn’t have as much dragon hoarding or the purchase, hollowing out and dumping of businesses that are thrown out like used tissues after extraction of all the potential value that is common in our modern age.