2 ms·

Saying corporations should be broken up is not the same as saying there should be no corporations. The former is just old-fashioned antitrust and yeah, definite

Saying corporations should be broken up is not the same as saying there should be no corporations. The former is just old-fashioned antitrust and yeah, definitely has some sway on the left. A split-up Google just makes bunch of corporations; abolishing tech corporations entirely and taking them over as a public utility or worker's cooperative is what I'm getting at. "This particular corporation is too big" is a mainstream-but-lefty opinion; "this corporation should be expropriated and owned by the public" is not a mainstream opinion. Steve Bannon is on record as wanting to dismantle the "administrative state", he held the ear of the President for a while. The head of the CFPB doesn't think the CFPB should exist. Paul Ryan wants to privatise Social Security. "Shrink government enough to drown it in a bathtub" is a Grover Norquist quote. They may not want to roll back the entire government to Independence Day but they do want to take it back to the 19th century if it means they can cut taxes. They don't just want less regulation; they want the feds to get out of the business of regulating industry at all.

tdhoot 8y ago
I'm not sure if we're speaking past each other, but it seems we're both making the same point. The right is not advocating for the complete destruction of the Government. The left is not advocating for the removal of corporations as a legal entity. Those two positions are equivalent and neither side has cachet at the moment. The destruction of certain government agencies is closer to the breakup of certain corporations or industries than it is to the right-equivalent of a Worker's Revolution.
- roywiggins 8y ago
  I guess I'm equating "oil corporations should not exist" with "oil corporations should not be regulated by the feds". The latter seems to have some sway with the current administration, see: https://slate.com/culture/2018/11/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-drain-the-swamp-scott-angelle.html https://slate.com/culture/2018/11/john-oliver-last-week-toni... This guy does not seem worried that he might look a bit cozy with the industry he is supposedly regulating; he's practically asking the industry to ask him for leniency. There are countries with state oil companies and nobody is advocating for that; but there seems to be people advocating for the total abdication of regulation of oil companies. If there's a continuum between "state run" and "fully unregulated", the "fully unregulated" side seems to have a certain amount of sway whereas the other end doesn't.
- specialist 8y ago
  "The right is not advocating for the complete destruction of the Government." Government is not the solution, it is the problem. -- Ronald Reagan. Shrink government so that it can be drowned in a bathtub. -- Grover Nordquist.

tdhoot 8y ago

I'm not sure if we're speaking past each other, but it seems we're both making the same point. The right is not advocating for the complete destruction of the Government. The left is not advocating for the removal of corporations as a legal entity. Those two positions are equivalent and neither side has cachet at the moment. The destruction of certain government agencies is closer to the breakup of certain corporations or industries than it is to the right-equivalent of a Worker's Revolution.

roywiggins 8y ago
I guess I'm equating "oil corporations should not exist" with "oil corporations should not be regulated by the feds". The latter seems to have some sway with the current administration, see: https://slate.com/culture/2018/11/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-drain-the-swamp-scott-angelle.html https://slate.com/culture/2018/11/john-oliver-last-week-toni... This guy does not seem worried that he might look a bit cozy with the industry he is supposedly regulating; he's practically asking the industry to ask him for leniency. There are countries with state oil companies and nobody is advocating for that; but there seems to be people advocating for the total abdication of regulation of oil companies. If there's a continuum between "state run" and "fully unregulated", the "fully unregulated" side seems to have a certain amount of sway whereas the other end doesn't.
specialist 8y ago
"The right is not advocating for the complete destruction of the Government." Government is not the solution, it is the problem. -- Ronald Reagan. Shrink government so that it can be drowned in a bathtub. -- Grover Nordquist.