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>Workers aren't paid what they deserve, they're paid as much (or as little) as they're able to negotiate.

Deserve is a tricky notion. The capitalist will argue that workers deserve precisely their market rate, e.g. what they are able to negotiate (collectively or otherwise).

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capitalists, at least in America, were very effective at destroying unions (known as union busting) and pro-worker political movements starting back in the 1940s.

Monopolies and cartels are also busted, and for the same reason. They distort markets and lead to worse outcomes for consumers and the country at large.

> Monopolies and cartels are also busted

I think you mean 'were also busted.' Trust busting in America happened under Roosevelt, 110 years ago. The FTC does not actively prevent cartels or monopolies today.

> They distort markets and lead to worse outcomes for consumers and the country at large.

If by country at large you mean shareholders, sure. Not to stray too far from home, software companies colluded to suppress software engineering wages - certainly a market distortion.

Personally I prefer to keep free market ideologies where they belong, the classrooms and textbooks of the Chicago School of Economics.

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