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If you think about it, you can broadly classify (at least in US politics) right vs left as “which large groups you trust”. For example, republicans tend to tru

by efitz 2y ago

If you think about it, you can broadly classify (at least in US politics) right vs left as “which large groups you trust”. For example, republicans tend to trust corporations of any size and tend to distrust large government. The opposite is true of Democrats; they tend to want to centralize power in government and tend to distrust large corporations. The fallacy on both sides is that the problem isn’t the kind of organization, it’s the centralization of power. Personally I distrust any large group with any sort of power, be it economic or monopoly on use of force or whatever. The solution for government is “give the government less things to control” - easier said than done but the Constitution laid it out for us. I have been thinking about solutions for corporations, and I have come up with two ideas: 1. A progressive tax on corporations based on number of employees and/or contractors of any sort contributing to the corporation. 2. A progressive tax on corporations based on economic power, eg market capitalization and/or gross revenue and/or subscribers or interactive users. Or all of the above. The idea is to make corporations naturally less profitable as they grow, which would make centralization/monopolization financially unattractive for investors. In such a tax regime maybe we wouldn’t even need to take antitrust actions anymore as it would become self-regulating if we got the rates right. Just a thought.

lucianbr 2y ago
You say you distrust government, but you propose to tax large corporations out of existence. The government would do that, who else. What's worse, any single rule against large corporations will be worked around. You will have a loose association of just-the-right-size corporations. They will find a way to work together as one, while legally being many and each small enough to have small taxes. Look at the recent software for rent collusion. Without an active powerful government to attack this new invention, they would claim there is no price agreement. Actually they do claim that. There is none formally, but the same effects are somehow achieved. If you want the government to be limited to applying some simple rules, this would go unpunished. This requires the government to adapt and use judgement and discretion. You need an active powerful entity to balance the power of economic behemoths. We don't appear to have any other way, yet. I think the key is balance.

by efitz 2y ago

lucianbr 2y ago

You say you distrust government, but you propose to tax large corporations out of existence. The government would do that, who else. What's worse, any single rule against large corporations will be worked around. You will have a loose association of just-the-right-size corporations. They will find a way to work together as one, while legally being many and each small enough to have small taxes. Look at the recent software for rent collusion. Without an active powerful government to attack this new invention, they would claim there is no price agreement. Actually they do claim that. There is none formally, but the same effects are somehow achieved. If you want the government to be limited to applying some simple rules, this would go unpunished. This requires the government to adapt and use judgement and discretion. You need an active powerful entity to balance the power of economic behemoths. We don't appear to have any other way, yet. I think the key is balance.