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How are dollars I have paid to the government any more mine than dollars I have paid to a company?
by jld 7y ago
How are dollars I have paid to the government any more mine than dollars I have paid to a company?
- whowhatwhy 7y agoa company is accountable for the dollars you pay to it, and has to provide a commensurate value, or you take your business elsewhere. dollars paid to the government keep coming in no matter how wasteful their practices
- lazyasciiart 7y agoThat's not how people choose which health insurance policy is offered by their employer, or which private company won the contract to deliver their electricity.
- lone_haxx0r 7y agoYou're right, at least in the case of highly regulated markets and when the state creates artificial monopolies (e.g. electricity). I'll correct my original comment then: At least private companies that compete in a relatively free market are losing their own earned money when they're inefficient, not someone else's.
- TheSpiceIsLife 7y agoIt’s still not right. Private companies are losing money on behalf of their owners or shareholders.
- leetcrew 7y agoa key difference is that the largest shareholders are proportionally affected by the waste, and have a proportionately large amount of power to do something about it.
- moate 7y agoI think most VCs would have some thoughts on the idea that a start up they just pumped millions into has lost "the start-ups money" in some stupid experiment and not theirs.
- lone_haxx0r 7y agoYou could say that the owners/shareholders are losing it themselves, because they voluntarily invested in the company, as opposed to the state, which takes your money even if you don't want it to.
- lazyasciiart 7y agoThat claim assumes a free market with perfect information, which is more than even Adam Smith was willing to do.
- ibeckermayer 7y agoThose are some of the most regulated industries in existence. Those companies are "private" in the sense that private individuals reap profits, but their funding is secured by proxy through force (legislation/forceful-taxation).
- kortilla 7y agoMove to a location with multiple electricity providers. They exist all over. If you don’t like your employer healthcare, quit and find another or buy it on your own. There is choice there and you just don’t like it.
- lazyasciiart 7y agoI think you’ve confused a discussion about how individuals make choices about their purchases for a complaint about the results of my personal choices?
- imtringued 7y agoThe government isn't supposed to run a profit. Therefore it becomes very difficult to know which part of it is wasteful and which isn't. Companies simply fail if they don't make a profit or have an outside funding source.
- JabavuAdams 7y agoNot nearly quickly enough to be a curb on wasteful behaviour at large companies, and these are the ones that affect public policy.
- kortilla 7y agoMuch faster than waste at a government is curbed, which is essentially not until the country’s currency collapses.
- JudgeWapner 7y agogovernment has people with guns to force its income stream. corporations do not.
- SantalBlush 7y agoCorporations lobby the government to change laws to boost their profit. Those laws are enforced by guns. It is a myth that corporations like free markets.
- kortilla 7y agoWhich law forces me to pay google money?
- stallmanite 7y agoThere’s laws to make you buy insurance. (Not taking a side here pro or con)