Not many people should have a problem with capitalism.  It should benefit many.  But the dysfunctional financial system today is anything but successful capitalism.  It is a corrupt form of capitalism.

The advantages given to the 1% make it impossible for anyone to compete on a level playing field.

Take recent reports about Amazon found by the investigative journalist Aditya Kalra. Amazon has been trying to dominate the Indian e-commerce market.  Kalra investigated internal letters at Amazon on how to violate the rules in India and circumvent them. These rules were designed to make e-commerce fair for all sellers.   

What Amazon did was give preferential treatment to small group of large sellers, helping them prosper by giving them discounts on fees.

www.thehindu.com/business/cait-seeks-ban-on-amazon-in-india/article33867873.ece

This is no different to the Australian Stock Exchange where the large players are given fantastic advantages over retail investors like us. They are even allowed to break the law. Over a long time period (5 years) it has become impossible for a large hedge fund or investment bank to lose and equally it has become impossible for a small mum and dad investor to win. If we put this latest strange and disturbing bull run aside because it is based on reserve bank creating money out of thin air and pumping it into the stockmarket to give the illusion we are in some kind of period of prosperity, we can talk to any number of accountants and ask them - are any mums and dads winning on the stockmarket? The answer is no.  Despite All Ordinaries over 7000 now. 

The illusion is created when a small number of stocks with large market caps are manipulated upwards in price while the vast majority are manipulated down in price by algorithms, aided by short sellers and journalists in cahoots with them. When a company is targeted, destroyed, taken over, merged or any other corporate action which flushes out the shareholders, no action is taken even despite obvious manipulation of the share price.

The destruction of the share price in auctions, the pushing down of the price in the last seconds of the day, the constant downtick trades with tiny trades throughout the day, its all designed to wear a company's share price down over the course of a few years.  We've all seen it happening right in front of us. Is there a shortage of evidence to confirm they are breaking laws - hardly.  ASIC simply doesn't give a toss.  If their mates are winning they are happy. 

Those manipulating the prices are breaking many laws - insider trading and setting artificial prices are the main ones. 

Like Amazon favoring the large sellers, our regulator ASIC, is favoring the big investment banks and hedge funds simply by not charging them when they break the laws. In cases around the world where the large players like JP Morgan do get caught and charged for manipulation, the fines are nothing compared to what they have made. And in Australia these fines do not even occur.

This is because the top people at our regulator come from the same companies that manipulate the prices.