There is only capitalism, and it comes in two forms: market or monopoly
Government is generally thought of as the necessary or natural monopoly on retaliatory force. This is due to the fact that the skills required maintaining and enforcing a monopoly coincide with those that are required to produce legitimate defense. With this as a basis, the initial monopoly tries to monopolize other services:
- Through regulations, such as a law saying you cannot compete with us.
- Through economic means, such as subsidies
- Through participation, such as compulsory school attendance
Although these things overlap__*__ and combine to create varying degrees of monopoly, I think they are important to distinguish. *All of these barriers to entry require money, either in creating the new bureaucracy of laws or the army that’s going to enforce them.
If you take education for example, it is primarily monopolistic in that it is already paid for by the taxpayer. But even if you could afford to pay twice for schooling, there are regulations that limit your alternative choices. In addition, compulsory attendance forces you to participate.
Roads, on the other hand, though fully paid for though taxes, and restricted through regulations, do not require that you use them. You could stay home or walk to wherever.
Airlines, similarly, are heavily regulated, but only partially funded through subsidies. You are also allowed not to fly.
The military is fully funded, granted a legal monopoly, and you must participate in it. During the draft, you are forced to participate. But it isn’t absolute because you could of course dodge it. What the draft does is increase the likelihood that you join the army. Likewise, if the monopoly raised its wages for soldiers so high that you needed to join the army to get some of it back, then you would essentially be drafted. And that could apply to all public jobs where wage rates cannot be determined
In the same way, if ‘renewable’ energy is subsidized so to bankrupt the oil companies, then you have no choice but to participate in buying renewable energy. If a law says companies cannot use fossil fuels, the same results occurs.
…So all of these specific monopolistic tactics are indirectly the same thing.
A lot of people say therefore the government should not monopolize anything and just redistribute the wealth as in welfare and food stamps to the poor. But if the govenrment has the monopoly to take money, then it necessarily has the monopoly to distribute it. And this wealth redistribution monopoly might be overlooked in its importance. Charity is very complicated and many people would not feel inclined to donate unless there were certain provisions that ensured their money was not only helping the poor, but helping the poor to help society. With a charity monopoly, nobody knows whether the poor are receiving enough money, too much money, whether the incentives are right so to keep them looking for work, creating incentives that break apart families, etc.