No ideology is so nearly perfect that it can be successfully implemented wholesale. It's surprising to me that someone who I assume deals with edge cases on a daily basis wouldn't realize that.
Capitalism, just like a system of government, has pitfalls. What do you suggest; just let it run wild and hope for the best (hint; that's been tried.)
Well an important part of capitalism is preventing monopoly power from being wielded in such a way that it hurts markets.
A market can have significant problems, that hurt consumers, if significant market power is allowed to be used to create anti-competitive consequences.
Capitalism reasonably a system of governance. Politics is all about the distribution of power, and capitalism says that certain parts of society are governed by wealth. Eg. A land owner gets to do stuff on land that they own, or the board gets to choose a ceo.
To make a clearer comparison, we could hold general elections to choose the ceo of Coca-Cola like we do for things that we call "government"
I worded that a bit confusingly, but I assure you I know capitalism is not a system of government. I was using governance as another area where we have ideologies which simply can't be implemented wholesale without some tinkering around the edges.
Both you and your parent can be true, just because Adam Smith wrote the book on capitalism doesn't mean he was 100% for it in all forms.
I guess the real answer is what is capitalism, and the first answer I could find is: "an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state."
This ruling would not bring any trade or industry in state control so in that way I cannot see how the parent is correct.
Edit: Wikipedia says this though: "Capitalism is an economic system. In it the government plays a secondary role. People and companies make most of the decisions, and own most of the property. Goods are usually made by companies and sold for profit. The means of production are largely or entirely privately owned (by individuals or companies) and operated for profit.[1][2]
Most property, for example, is owned by people or companies, not by the government or by the workers. Capitalism has a more or less free market economy, which means that prices move up or down according to the availability of the products. People buy and sell things according to their own judgment. In most countries there is some regulation (trade laws) and some planning done by the government. They are sometimes called "mixed economies" to indicate this. Some people disagree on whether capitalism is a good idea, or how much of capitalism is a good idea."
According to this I guess it is fair to say that this is anti-capitalistic. In a true capitalistic society government should not be involved in transactions or take important decisions about this. I don't think such a society would work but people can have different opinions on this.
> In a true capitalistic society government should not be involved in transactions or take important decisions about this.
Even under a purely capitalist system, if there is a suspicion of malfeasance in such a transaction, it is reasonable for the government or others to ask for more clarity. Blackmail, bribery, embezzlement, or other bad faith agreements can introduce legal proceedings, none of those things are permissible under capitalism.
