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The problem is that we painted ourselves into a this corner long ago. Even if Congress wasn't generally paralyzed by bad-faith partisan fighting, the House and

• jimkleiber 2y ago
  Agreed. If government provides fewer services, companies can provide more services at a profit. Why have public (non-profit) education when you can have private (highly profitable) education? Who needs public (non-profit) health insurance when you can have private (highly profitable) health insurance? The list can go on and on.
  • 3D30497420 2y ago
    Exactly. There's probably some theory about power being like the conservation of energy, in that it doesn't get destroyed, just transformed or moved. Take power away from the government and that power doesn't just make people more free, it just goes somewhere else. Clearly the intent is to move that power from the government (which is at least nominally meant to protect citizens) to companies/the rich.
    • jimkleiber 2y ago
      That's how I see it as well. Government in theory should protect the citizens, which I assume often means the consumers and the workers. But maybe capitalism run amok is when capitalists accumulate the power and use it to strong-arm the government into liking the corporate shareholders (capitalists?) more than the citizens.
      • ModernMech 2y ago
        > capitalism run amok is when capitalists accumulate the power and use it to strong-arm the government into liking the corporate shareholders (capitalists?) more than the citizens. This is pretty much the definition of fascism. “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” — Benito Mussolini, famous fascist.
        • jimkleiber 2y ago
          Whoa, I was unaware, thank you for sharing this
          • jgys 2y ago
            I had the same reaction, but then some cursory searching led me to this discussion on the "Talk" page for Wikiquote's entry on Mussolini which casts some doubt on the accuracy of the attribution and/or translation of this line: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Benito_Mussolini#Fascism_should_more_properly_be_called_corporatism,_since_it_is_the_merger_of_state_and_corporate_power https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Benito_Mussolini#Fascism_...
            • theendisney 2y ago
              From there: > At its core, the quoted saying is incompatible with fascism and frankly nonsensical. Under fascism, the state uses the market efficiency of capitalism to regulate and control the economy, namely by concentrating market shares to a relatively few large corporations into cartels, which in turn the fascist state has direct control over. Whereas, corporatism is state control by large interest groups, commonly pictured as large multi-national corporations with monopolistic powers. In other words, the controlling party under corporatism is the reverse of that under fascism."Fascism recognizes the real needs which gave rise to socialism and trade unionism, giving them due weight in the guild or corporative system in which divergent interests are coordinated and harmonized in the unity of the State."The Doctrine of Fascism (1932) by Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile
          • merry_flame 2y ago
  • ashoeafoot 2y ago
    and it does https://top-of-the-poops.org/ https://top-of-the-poops.org/
• biohcacker84 2y ago
  Most conservatives and Libertarians from all times think that. A minority of those on the right, don't.