Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Is that a real market though when it is mandated that I must purchase one specific book? A real market? Absolutely. An idealized free market, no, but real markets never are. > So I don't think your "this is just how capitalism works" argument holds much credibility here. This is, in fact, just how capitalism works, and has always worked, in the real world.
>"This is, in fact, just how capitalism works, and has always worked, in the real world." A central tenet of capitalism is a competitive market though. Where is the competition when I am mandated to buy a single book?
It's true that a lot of the defense of capitalism that was ginned up (long) after the system was described and named by its critics involves invoking all kinds of hokum about markets which are both free and competitive which not only has nothing to do with anything in the history of capitalism, but isn't even all that internally consistent because of the tendency toward monopoly in unregulated markets where producers experience economies of scale (and in some other common cases.)
But this is a (deeply flawed) rationalization of capitalism, not its foundation.