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Two alternative viewpoints I have that are radically opposed: What if government regulations warp capitalism and give protectionism and favoritism to certain c
by nickthemagicman 6y ago
Two alternative viewpoints I have that are radically opposed:
What if government regulations warp capitalism and give protectionism and favoritism to certain companies while excluding the rest and not allowing for the free market to work?
What if unregulated capitalism has cannibalized itself and destroyed the free market by way of big fish eating up all of the small ones and now we're left with a bunch of huge corporations with outsized power and no threat from competition?
- baggy_trough 6y agoThere are certainly good and bad kinds of regulation.
- sudosysgen 6y agoWell, the synthesis is that capitalism is not just an economic system, and that in reality economics cannot be divorced from social and political spheres. Government regulations warping capitalism are in large part a consequence of capitalism. Think about it, is it ever possible to orchestrate a society where money buys you media, re-election campaigns, charity and favours, without those having the most money wielding the above-mentioned elements to ensure they keep having the most money. In other words, the social organization is a consequence of economic organization, which explains why it is impossible for a truly free market to ever exist. It's not possible either to completely get rid of government, because the State is necessary to uphold property.
- nickthemagicman 6y agoI've thought this before as well. Doesn't seem like there's a solution. If you think about it, human beings corrupt any system they're in.
- sudosysgen 6y agoI've tought about it as well, and came to a different conclusion, which is that class divides inevitably bring violence and collapse. I think if it would be possible to engineer a society where everyone's class interests would be more or less the same we wouldn't have such issues.
- nickthemagicman 6y agoThere have been class issues since the dawn of mankind and almost a of our evolutionary ancestors have class ranking. Hierarchy is hardwired into our DNA. How do you overcome human nature? https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/primate-sociality-and-social-systems-58068905/ https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/primate-so...
- fallingfrog 6y agoThe first usually happens as a direct consequence of the second.
- arrosenberg 6y agoThis is the correct answer. Look at what happened at the end of the Wilson administration when Andrew Mellon took over as Treasury Secretary as a prime example.
- chromatin 6y agoThe first scenario is described (in part) by the phrase "crony capitalism," and is a very real situation and danger.
- klipt 6y agoThe academic term for this is Regulatory Capture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture