More random thoughts

• Capitalism and free markets aren't the problem. Big corporations and the fact that there are no free markets is the problem. Confusing capitalism with corporatism is a mistake that leads to many problems and incorrect conclusions.
• If we're optimistic, the drivers of individualism, education, and technology, amongst others, will drive the decline of large corporations and return the system to a functioning competition-based free market. This will be because the friction and missing infrastructure bits that big corporations were able to get past when small companies couldn't will be reduced.
• To enable the above, one must decide what type of a mechanism should be used to revitalize the system. Competition law and regulators are an obvious choice, but this requires the regulators to act more decisively and more intelligently in the future.