The mafia is famous for running protection rackets. This usually consists of a mobster sauntering up to an unsuspecting resident or shopkeeper, making thinly veiled threats of violence from an ambient source, and then offering peace and security for a fee. A person is just going about their business when a powerful entity barges in, simultaneously creating a problem and selling the solution. The result is hell for ordinary people, easy money for gangsters.

You know who else does this? Capitalists.

Here’s an example: the pharmaceutical company Purdue started manufacturing OxyContin in 1996, claiming that it was non-addictive. For years, they knew that was a lie, but covered it up while pushing for reckless prescriptions and higher doses anyway.