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> These patterns, if true, are seem important regarding the ideal scales of both business and government. And I fear the U.S. public is insufficiently aware of
by jimkleiber 5y ago
> These patterns, if true, are seem important regarding the ideal scales of both business and government. And I fear the U.S. public is insufficiently aware of them, as we seem to be on the verge of a historic increase in the scale and depth of government management of society.
Maybe what hit me harder was the last line and the presumption that 1) it is a historic increase in the scale and depth of government management of society and 2) that we are also not seeing a large amount of corporate centralization. Maybe I perceive more corporate centralization than government centralization, as platforms have hundreds of millions or billions of users across 100+ countries, and I recall my 2005 political science class talking about the rising influence of multinational companies over nation-state governments.
- southerntofu 5y agoWe are not on the verge of greater government control on every aspect of our life. Since cars and helicopters became a thing, all "modern" governments have acquired unprecedented powers. Previously, governments had an area of influence of roughly a few days travel from their centers of power: their area of influence was as large as their army's capacity to crush dissent. It's a "new" development in the history of humanity that you cannot be safe anywhere on earth: even in a remote forest/mountain, the government can come and massacre your community very quickly. (In most countries, they'll most likely just tear down your houses [0] and imprison you, because that's less likely to cause popular uproar) [0] Even a pretend democracy like France has strong regulations mandating to break people's homes. And french police/préfets are very involved in persecuting ethnic minorities (eg. Rroma people) and other "light housing" folks.