Skip to content

2100: Socialist Ends through Market Means

Most of us were taught a simple picture of how the economy works:

The Corporation exists to make profit. The State exists to keep the Corporation in check. Our political choice is where to set the slider between the two, ranging from laissez-faire capitalism to neoliberalism to social democracy to state socialism.

This project explores a different possibility:

What if the State and the Corporation are not rivals, but partners? What if the massive inequality, environmental destruction, and precarious labor we see today are not the result of "free markets," but the result of a State–Corporate complex designed to concentrate wealth?

And most importantly and radically: What if the best way to achieve the egalitarian goals of the Left is to unleash a genuinely freed market against the privileges of the Epstein class?

The argument in brief

We are often told that billionaires are "self-made" or that extreme wealth is a natural outcome of trade. This site argues that extreme concentration of wealth is a policy failure. It is the result of specific legal monopolies that suppress competition and systematically funnel wealth from workers to owners.

This project walks through how those monopolies work, and what a world without them might look like.

Part 1: The State vs. The Corporation

We start by deconstructing the myth that government regulation fundamentally hurts big business. We look at the history of how large industries, from railroads to big tech,have captured the state to protect themselves from competition. The State isn't the leash on the Corporation; often, it's the engine.

Part 2: Capitalism is not a Free Market

If it’s not a free market, what is it? Here we detail the Four Monopolies (identified by 19th-century individualist anarchists) that rig the game: 1. The Money Monopoly: How banking cartels and credit restrictions hurt the poor. 2. The Land Monopoly: How absentee titles and zoning enforce rent extraction. 3. The Tariff Monopoly: How protectionism shelters incumbents. 4. The Patent/IP Monopoly: How ideas are locked down to prevent innovation and keep prices high.

Part 3: The Freed Market

What happens if we abolished those privileges, if we stripped away the state protections that enforce rent, usury, and intellectual property? It's not the continuation of the trend towards technofeudalism by unrestrained capitalism that we see today. While avoiding utopian promises, there are genuine reasons to suggest that such a world would be life-focused and egalitarian (ideals of the Left) and even more rich, with stronger economic efficiency and technological innovation (ideals of the Right).

Who is this project for?

It is for the Progressive who sees that despite decades of regulation and welfare, inequality is getting worse, and corporate power is consistently getting stronger, more consolidated, and more integrated with government.

It is for the Libertarian who loves markets but is uncomfortable with the corporate bootlicking that often passes for "economics." It asks: If you hate the state, why do you defend the corporate hierarchies that depend on it?

It is for the Skeptic who suspects that "Capitalism" and "Socialism" (as defined by the 20th century) are both dead ends, and is looking for a third option that doesn't rely on authoritarian bureaucracies or corporate oligarchies.

Going Deeper

Once you've walked through the main argument, you will likely have many questions and objections. Here are a few more sections for you to explore:

  • Objections and further resources: Responds to the most common misunderstandings and the biggest objections, plus links to understand these ideas in more depth.
  • My guess at a future: If we don't fix the accumulation glitch, we are heading toward Technofeudalism. This is my conjecture on why a freed market is the only serious off-ramp.
  • Intellectual history: This isn't a new idea. It comes from a long lineage of thinkers like Proudhon and Tucker who were erased by the Cold War binary.
  • The Constitution was a coup: A revisionist history of the US founding, showing how the Constitution was designed to suppress the free market in favor of a creditor aristocracy.
  • Bailouts and corporate welfare in America: Evidence from the railroads to 2008 showing how the state has always stepped in to save corporate power from the risks of the market.