[jpatt]

If anything, the modern management structure more closely resembles a mini-communist state than a capitalist system.

Each department's revenue goes into a shared pool, which is distributed amongst the company in annual planning cycles by an unelected board of representatives. Who gets what is as much a function of meritocratic principles like department revenue as it is of who happens to have senior leadership's ear that year (how many times have executives been convinced X is the future, we need more X, with no concrete performance to back that up?).

There are some larger, more sophisticated companies that break this mold, but more the exception than the rule, I think.

[carom]

I have been saying this. Large corporations are command economies! There is a ton of bureaucracy too.