Rath on 08 March 2012
| HappySqurriel said: I would personally argue that "Democratic Socialism" is far more likely to lead to corporatism than free market capitalism ... In a free market (laissez faire) system the rules are supposed to be equitable for all participants in the system and the market is supposed to determine who is successful of not. In this system there is no advantage for businesses to get "into bed" with the government because there is nothing the government can do to benefit them. In contrast, in a social democracy the government is always arbitrarily deciding what has "merit" or what is "damaging" which often determines who is successful or a failure. With this in mind there is a significant incentive for businesses to manipulate the government. As an example, in a social democracy a company that manufactures electric automobiles can become far more profitable if they can manipulate the processes of the government to pay for R&D, provide buying incentives for customers, and introduce legislation that creates fines on their competition. |
While I agree that political influence of corporations does rely on the government regulating things - true free-market capitalism would kill the planet, kill people and screw workers. It's a really bad idea to allow corporations to have completely free rein.
Personally I don't think the problem in America is with the capitalism - it's with the system of government. Capitalism doesn't require that the corporations have to have the ability to make donations and fund campaigns to bribe politicians into voting for things that favour them.
