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The same thing that stops them from doing whatever they want to the interest rate. The people managing the economy would not be politicians. Not every activity

The same thing that stops them from doing whatever they want to the interest rate. The people managing the economy would not be politicians. Not every activity of the government is undertaken by politicians directly. In fact it would be entirely impossible to elect enough politicians to handle money at that scale. The matter of issuing loans would obviously have nothing to with politicians. I always find it a little stupid when people claim the government is too powerful. The governments of most countries are massively beholden to business interests. It is to the degree that people cannot separate the ideas of government and corruption. "The democratic electoral process" is not a real thing. Every country that claims to be democratic has a different way of going about this, with differing results. The system in America is one where politics is driven by whoever has the most money. If you gave government the power to subjugate private wealth, you might have an actual democracy. You seem to treat corruption as a fact of life, but it clearly isn't. You can make laws banning it.

s1artibartfast 2y ago
>The system in America is one where politics is driven by whoever has the most money. If you gave government the power to subjugate private wealth, you might have an actual democracy. I don't understand how you can make those statements about corporate capture of politics in parallel with advocating for a politically appointed body to hand out free government money. Why do you have no trust in the politicians, but do trust their agents? You seem to agree it is corrupt, but think giving more power to the corrupt will fix it. Do we need a dictator to drain the swamp?
- James_K 2y ago
  No, you just need to vote for the corruption to stop. This has worked in many places before.
  - s1artibartfast 2y ago
    I've done that, but there is still corruption, so there's obviously more to it. This gets to the point that you are describing a hypothetical. If thing A were true, then this would be possible. If we all had identical values, perfect information, and unlimited time to review it, then yes many things would be possible. I don't think it is possible for the electorate to provide any more than the most superficial oversight and direction in the US Federal governmental system. It is far too big, and far too distant. And that's even if people agreed on what they wanted. 99% of people are ignorant of 99% of the activities of their elected representatives. My state has more than 5,000 bills proposed per year. Even the full time representatives don't read most of them. You say it is as simple as voting for the corruption to stop, as if that is even possible. Collective action problems are hard, as information problems. You can't just hand wave them away.

s1artibartfast 2y ago

>The system in America is one where politics is driven by whoever has the most money. If you gave government the power to subjugate private wealth, you might have an actual democracy. I don't understand how you can make those statements about corporate capture of politics in parallel with advocating for a politically appointed body to hand out free government money. Why do you have no trust in the politicians, but do trust their agents? You seem to agree it is corrupt, but think giving more power to the corrupt will fix it. Do we need a dictator to drain the swamp?

James_K 2y ago
No, you just need to vote for the corruption to stop. This has worked in many places before.
- s1artibartfast 2y ago
  I've done that, but there is still corruption, so there's obviously more to it. This gets to the point that you are describing a hypothetical. If thing A were true, then this would be possible. If we all had identical values, perfect information, and unlimited time to review it, then yes many things would be possible. I don't think it is possible for the electorate to provide any more than the most superficial oversight and direction in the US Federal governmental system. It is far too big, and far too distant. And that's even if people agreed on what they wanted. 99% of people are ignorant of 99% of the activities of their elected representatives. My state has more than 5,000 bills proposed per year. Even the full time representatives don't read most of them. You say it is as simple as voting for the corruption to stop, as if that is even possible. Collective action problems are hard, as information problems. You can't just hand wave them away.