How we got from competition to assuming subsidies is beyond me.

There are a whole lot of commodity businesses that flourishes and that are profitable. It's true, that, yes, they will not have huge margins.

Grocery stores are like that - some of their suppliers might be subsidised but they are not, and many places they operate with typical margins in the 2% range. Discount supermarkets in the UK are operating on around 0.7% margins.

They are still huge, profitable businesses.

And they are examples of what happens when markets work.