Hi, thanks for responding. I’m not anti-capitalist, so to speak. I think capitalism needs guard rails. It needs limits, because unbridled capitalism leads to exploitation, obscene consolidation of unearned wealth, which in turn leads to equally obscene and destructive undemocratic influence.

Now, that’s a lot of dramatic words, that could certainly be used to paint me as an extremist. I’m not, but I’ll point out that criticism of capitalism often gets incorrectly labeled as an extremist position by those who defend and define neocon economic models as individualist, when in reality human nature is collaborative.

True, this article wasn’t about solutions. Much of its thrust is my frustration with the consumer. However, it does mention many failings of capitalism, and I would say I implied that they need to be addressed. So, some solutions:

1. Executive compensation needs to be indexed to bottom rung salary. Let's go back to 1965 when it was in the 25 to 1 range instead of now when it is in excess of 350 to 1.

2. Living wage for all workers before corporate profits such as executive bonuses, stock buy backs, and shareholder dividends.

3. In the music industry, specifically, monopsony power cannot be allowed to dictate price. Individual sellers should be able to set price or distro terms, such as do not include in unlimited streaming, or stream 3-4 times, then the end user has to purchase. There should be severe penalties for platforms who have content on their sites that are not authorized. Like, all of youtube

4. But more importantly, end users need to pay more. And of course, they’re used to getting shit for free. It’s unsustainable for the artist. But there’s no reason why corporations should pay CEOs so much, when artists make so little.