To what extent do you agree with Nitin Gadkari that there is no alternative to capitalism?

To the extent that capitalists are engaged in actual competition against each other, which is the only thing that keeps capitalists honest, and not forming cartels and oligopolies which they call “associations” and “lobbies” or falling back on government granted monopolies such as the patent thickets Big Pharma relies on to delay generic and bio-similar competition. Certain aspects of capitalism are zero-sum predatory games where the monopolist can charge exorbitant premiums just for access to good job markets, good schools, life saving medicine or treatment and higher paying careers. Real estate speculation is one of them as there aren’t any land factories producing more habitable land to accommodate population growth and new housing supply is arrested by NIMBY shitbags that control zoning boards and city councils forcing an unsustainable post-war model of single family suburban sprawl on all metro areas. But the medical industry is by far the most predatory form of capitalism, not only because they have a captive consumer base with information asymmetry and zero price transparency, but the nature of medical emergencies like having a stroke or heart attack isn’t conducive to shopping around for medical care not to mention hospitals themselves are a monopolistic business model that heavily rely on public reimbursement from medicare, medicaid, social security and property taxes. In a Statement before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations, an economics professor from Carnegie Mellon University revealed that ‘hospitals that have fewer potential competitors nearby have substantially higher prices’ with hospitals with a monopoly over an area charging 12.5% higher prices than hospitals with 3 or more competitors. He also found that when two nearby hospitals merge they raise prices 6.2% while mergers in already concentrated markets can increase prices by 20–50%. The same is generally true of insurers as well as insurance premiums have suppressed real wages over the past couple of decades. Between 1999 and 2016, employee contributions to health insurance premiums increased 242% while their wages grew by only 60%. This is not a sustainable healthcare paradigm for an economic system mostly dependent on consumer spending.

Higher education is a close second with its predation on naive college students who basically take out NINJA loans, 90% of which are backed by Uncle Sam, to pay for enrollment in a school with no clear career prospects most of the time and a piece of paper with diminishing ROI. Universities have taken advantage of both the nativity and financial illiteracy of college students and generosity of the federal government to hike tuition 400–500% over the past 3 decades.