As tech oligarch Peter Thiel told audiences and readers: “Creating value isn’t enough—you also need to capture some of the value you create.” That depended on market power. “Americans mythologize competition and credit it with saving us from socialist bread lines,” but Thiel knew better. As far as he was concerned, “[C]apitalism and competition are opposites. Capitalism is premised on the accumulation of capital, but under perfect competition, all profits get competed away. The lesson for entrepreneurs is clear … [c]ompetition is for losers.”
