Another debunked idea still pushed in mainstream #economics is that capitalism leads to democracy - some even go as far to say capitalism is a necessary condition of democracy.
This is just cold-war era propaganda that still occasionally shows up in econ classrooms to this day. If anything, unfettered free-market capitalism almost necessarily devolves into oligarchy, rather than bolstering democracy, as the biggest companies in the world are showcasing well as we speak.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/sep/23/amazon-tesla-meta-climate-change-democracy
Capitalism under China didn't result in democracy. Neither did it in Russia.
In both cases, capitalism resulted in pay-to-play oligarchy where oligarchs fall in and out of favor (or windows) as the public corruption of leadership waxes & wanes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgecalhoun/2021/06/24/what-really-happened-to-jack-ma/
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/business/china-jack-ma-wealth-drop-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64781986
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/prigozhin-russia-plane-crash-live-updates-rcna101554
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspicious_deaths_of_notable_Russians_in_2022%E2%80%932024
Great examples and thanks for providing detailed sources!
You always do a great job of supporting your stances and giving great entry points into where we can dig deeper, which I value. <3