In Austria, where I've had my company for 29 years, the government has a limit on how many years you can be not profitable when you start up. I think the absolute number is 7, but after 3 the finance ministry is looking VERY hard at your books each year. After that grace period, your company is deemed a hobby and you can't write off your expenses as a business, because clearly you are not a business.

Uber, WeWork, Pets.com, etc. are all symptoms. Symptoms that taxes on the wealthy are too low. This allows too many people to have too much "play money" to speculate.

Yes, mergers are also a huge problem, but the real problem is too much money in too few hands.