Reply #94: Power in the hands of a small elite is common to the human condition...

[Silent3]

...hardly just capitalism. Monarchy, feudalism, communism, socialism, capitalism, democracies and dictatorships, all have histories of great power being concentrated into the hands of a few.

Frankl,y it's hard to imagine things ever being otherwise, not for very long spans of time at least. I can imagine systems that have checks and balances that will usually (but not always) keep the excesses of the greedy and the power hungry from getting too far out of hand, but truly well-distributed power would require a very informed, very engaged, and very dedicated general populace. One can strive for that as an ideal, to get as close as possible to it, but I just don't think it's in human nature for a significantly large portion of the populace to shake off their collective apathy and ignorance to attain the required degree of engagement in their own political affairs.

Incomplete and as flawed as it has often been, however, histories greatest moments of individual freedom and economic prosperity for the largest numbers of people have come under democracies with strong market-drive capitalist economies.