This is recognized and there are regulations put into effect to ensure prices remain low for utilities and they do not have to compete with each other. Digital technology is changing this for communications companies and laws separating electric power generation from electric power delivery changed this for electric companies. The changes though still leave too much power in the hands of a few.
I believe that power must lie in the hands of the many and not in the hands of a few. I do not want a relatively few elected officials to make decisions for society any more than I want a small number of corporations to make decisions for society. I want to see many, as in hundreds of companies competing for my business, except when it makes sense to only have a few. Those few I want to be heavily regulated and not become vertical giants. A classic example of a vertical giant is what is happening in the communications industry, where content providers, cable providers, and Internet providers are owned by one entity. Why should I be forced to buy comcast to watch a sports game? Regulation should keep content providers separate from communication providers.
There is a separate and related problem and that is how to provide for those who can no longer provide for themselves. When the US moved from being primarily agricultural economy to an industrial economy and family farms were no longer a primary means of income this became a serious problem. Property ownership used to be the security that older people had and children working the land provided their income. Industrialization changed that and another type of security was needed. Social security solved that problem, only it does so very poorly. Medicare solved the problems for medical bills, only it does so very poorly. Both programs have the advantage that the state has little control over how the money is spent, but distribute the money to individuals who do. This is a big win.
The upshot of this is that we need to take care of people who cannot care for themselves and enable those who can care for themselves to do so. To me this means that we should ensure that the first three levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, -physiological, safety, and love/belonging- are provided by society. It also means that every person is given dignity by all members of society and are enabled to self actualize.
I believe to accomplish this requires both socialism and capitalism to work in concert, not one or the other.
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