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You can go further back to the founding of the nation for why this is. It didn't start with the GOP. Things that would be nationalized in other countries like t
by krtong 7y ago
You can go further back to the founding of the nation for why this is. It didn't start with the GOP. Things that would be nationalized in other countries like the railroads have always been private in america. Even when Alexander Hamilton and George Washington had taxpayers of New Jersey pay for the country's first manufactories in Paterson, they were all private industries. Abraham Lincoln privatized all the railroads and telegraph lines after the civil war. (We had nationalized them for the war effort, so taxpayers paid for thousands of miles of railroad that was handed off to railroad companies.) You can even go further back, before the united states was even a thing and look at mercantilism, where merchants/private industry ran the country, but it was understood that they were subservient to the nation, economic growth's sole purpose was for national defense, and you took care of your citizenry because they were your troops. Thanks to the civil war, the 2nd industrial revolution, the gilded age, globalism, america has taken more and more turns towards 'every man for themself' and not giving a shit about the country, so obviously well-intentioned privatization of public utilities makes less and less sense.
- sneak 7y agoI don’t think it’s quite as simple as “not giving a shit about the country”, as much as it is the simple fact that different reasonable people can have different opinions about collective ownership. Recall that both companies and countries are abstractions; they are not real. Some people (reasonably) think that it is logically impossible for a country to own something. Others (reasonably) think it is logically impossible for a corporation to own something. Reasonable people disagree on these things sometimes.
- krtong 7y ago>Recall that both companies and countries are abstractions; they are not real. Money is fiat. family is fiat. When you think about it everything is fiat. Plus, everyone thinks they own things. Im sure you'd be really upset if I took your paycheck and said you didnt own it. It's basic psychology. Even dogs get really upset when you give their bone to another dog. But anyway, that's way too abstract for a real discussion. I'm specifically talking about the psychological effect of the civil war and how it affected important people like supreme court justices and tycoons, because if people want to understand how we got here, it's important to understand how and why decisions were made from a cultural/psychological/economic perspective.