And One More Thing
The main post is below, but because I know this is going to come up, I figured I’d better get it in.
The regulatory state would NOT suddenly work the way you want it to if we “got money out of politics.”
The regulatory state does not favor large corporations over smaller business and individuals because it’s being bribed. It favors large corporations over smaller business and individuals because the nature of the regulatory state itself REQUIRES large corporations to function.
Small businesses and individuals do not have the resources to satisfy 1600 hours of regulations a year, and those regulations that may change at any moment and require a complete overhaul of procedures, etc, etc, etc.
If you get the money out of politics, you get Western Europe, where large corporations are routinely protected from “predatory competition” (meaning: any new upstart that might upset the apple cart) and the corporations pay off with worker security and benefits, while keeping their national work forces as small as possible.
Then the regulatory state responds to the inevitable double digit unemployment by generous social welfare benefits, so they people they throw out of work can at least eat.
That may be your idea of a good time, but it is not mine.
2 Responses to 'And One More Thing'
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Yeah, pretty much. It’s why I favor a corrupt absolute state over an “incorruptible” one. The real historical monsters, all the way back at least to the Julio-Claudians, were government officials, and they weren’t in it for the money. You couldn’t bribe Nero, Lenin, Marat, Pol Pot or Robespierre. For that matter, all over Europe, Jews were expelled by honest upright monarchs. It was the somewhat sleazy ones who let them stay for a small fee. Throughout human history, people are killed and driven into exile by governments operating on the highest moral principles, and spared by those who would see reason in return for a small contribution. The Directory was one of the most corrupt governments in French History–but it looked really good after the Reign of Jacobins.
It would be better, of course–for me–to have a government which was honest but limited. But Mike F. has explained to me that I’m too stupid and addicted for anything but the full-bore absolute state.
robert_piepenbrink
28 Jun 13 at 10:03 am
Don’t despair, Mike. Here’s one example of corporate (mis)behaviour that you might like to add to your collection:
http://tinyurl.com/oerqf6w
Mique
28 Jun 13 at 9:48 pm