[ExI] Be nice to leftists

Tara Maya tara at taramayastales.com
Sat Jun 14 15:59:33 UTC 2014


On Jun 9, 2014, at 3:36 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:

> In theory, government and law tries to reduce corruption. That's why
> business regards government and laws as a hindrance to their trading
> practices. And, in the USA, has led to corporate takeover of the
> government. For business, that is the ideal - private profits and
> socialize losses.


I agree with this to a certain extent, but again the solution is to forbid the government from taking sides between businesses. As long as it's legal for government to favor one business over another (through licensing, minimum wage laws, laws making it hard to hire/fire, bailouts, or even laws like the one that forbids the selling of Teslas in Texas) then the businesses will have an incentive to spend huge sums to buy government favors. The biggest corporations are naturally the best positioned to spend huge sums to crush smaller, newer competitors.

I think a comparable situation exists with religion. For centuries, religions were allowed to capture monopolistic favors from government. Even now, in many countries, religious institutions are able to receive special favors from government, even in democracies. This corrupts religion and government both. The stakes for collusion between the larger religious groups and government are high, making what should be a matter of personal conscience into a matter of political contestation. 

I would like to see a Separation of Government and Business amendment (or the acknowledgment that it should be covered in the Constitution already). I think this help force both government and business to play fair. It would encourage plurality in the economy in the same way it encourages plurality in religion, with even more direct positive benefits for the economy--and possibly morality too.


Tara Maya
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