The way I see it everything evolves and always in favor of the elites, for example slavery was abolished, who really won there? Owners had to stop worrying about feeding there slaves, medicating them if they got sick, so actually who won there? I know for a fact many slaves in the US actually were far worse off free than while they were slaves. Same thing all over the world. Workers are basically still slaves only they are paid a wage for there hard work and believe they are fee.
Is there an alternative to this? Theoretically yes, in practice, unfortunately I really believe there isn't.