Re: For a contrasting view...
Mercantilism/Corporatism were damaging because they worked by restricting competition, usually by corrupting government to limit antitrust activity. It was this monopolistic aspect that led to abuse, whether by corporations or by government.
Capitalism depends on competition to limit power, and therefore abuse. It makes a virtue of profit seeking by allowing companies to compete in any market. If one pharma refuses to sell a cure expecting instead to sell a temporary remedy, there is nothing preventing another pharma from pursuing that profit by making its own cure.
Patents provide motivation, but their value expires. They are monopolies and there are abuses, like minor change renewals and patents on small changes made to publicly funded research. Laws and/or enforcement may need to change, but that doesn't mean the system needs to be dumped.
Capitalism and market economies have created unprecedentedly broad prosperity. This decade is the first time in history that there are more middle and upper income people in the world than lower and poverty level income. Market reforms in China alone have lifted 850m people out of poverty. It is a little too easy to say look at all these current problems while forgetting what life was like for people a hundred years ago.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
