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Welcome to the age of thousand dollar a pill medicine. Every communication, location, every purchase, every mouse click or swipe duly tracked, recorded, and dat

by NoPiece 12y ago

Welcome to the age of thousand dollar a pill medicine. Every communication, location, every purchase, every mouse click or swipe duly tracked, recorded, and data mined. You are exactly describing the world today, as provided by our big government.

willvarfar 12y ago
How would "small" government change it? Being a European living in a country with a "bigger" relative government (as I understand the way Americans use the term) but with free healthcare and a big data mining debate ongoing, I'm a bit at a loss...
- NoPiece 12y ago
  A smaller government wouldn't have a $52.6 billion budget for the NSA & CIA to data mine. A drug company can only charge a $1000 for a pill because the government is blocking competition by granting patents. Effectively creating a micro monopoly. Small government with extremely limited or no patents would allow competition to fix the $1000 pill. It is industries like healthcare and telecom, where the US has both very large companies and very big government that we have the worst outcomes.
sergiosgc 12y ago
Small countries, like mine (.pt), kind of disprove this idyllic vision of small government. Small governments easily fall prey to large multinationals. USA's woes with oligopolies may have many causes. A government concentrated at the federal level isn't probably one of them.
- NoPiece 12y ago
  My rebuttal would be that the oligopolies exist in heavily regulated areas (health, banking, telecom), and that isn't a coincidence. You don't need a big government to protect yourself from multinationals, you need a non corrupt government.
dougabug 12y ago
> You are exactly describing the world today, as provided by our big government. Of course I am. Orwell would be astounded. I perceive a false dichotomy of big government vs big corporations. While it may be possible to have one without the other, we have the latter (as you point out) courtesy of the former.

by NoPiece 12y ago

willvarfar 12y ago

How would "small" government change it? Being a European living in a country with a "bigger" relative government (as I understand the way Americans use the term) but with free healthcare and a big data mining debate ongoing, I'm a bit at a loss...

NoPiece 12y ago
A smaller government wouldn't have a $52.6 billion budget for the NSA & CIA to data mine. A drug company can only charge a $1000 for a pill because the government is blocking competition by granting patents. Effectively creating a micro monopoly. Small government with extremely limited or no patents would allow competition to fix the $1000 pill. It is industries like healthcare and telecom, where the US has both very large companies and very big government that we have the worst outcomes.

sergiosgc 12y ago

Small countries, like mine (.pt), kind of disprove this idyllic vision of small government. Small governments easily fall prey to large multinationals. USA's woes with oligopolies may have many causes. A government concentrated at the federal level isn't probably one of them.

NoPiece 12y ago
My rebuttal would be that the oligopolies exist in heavily regulated areas (health, banking, telecom), and that isn't a coincidence. You don't need a big government to protect yourself from multinationals, you need a non corrupt government.

dougabug 12y ago

> You are exactly describing the world today, as provided by our big government. Of course I am. Orwell would be astounded. I perceive a false dichotomy of big government vs big corporations. While it may be possible to have one without the other, we have the latter (as you point out) courtesy of the former.