State attorneys general line up to sue FCC over net neutrality repeal

[VAMatt]

Nymeria said:

VAMatt said:

That's *an* alternative.  But, its pretty unlikely.  Right now, government and big business are one in the same. Eliminate government and you eliminate the crony capitalist system that allows big companies to pass off their losses on to taxpayers, protects them from competition, and shields them from liability and it would seem to me that businesses would have a lot less power over the lives of the average person than they do now.  

I would increase government to cut the corruption out from big business.  For example, elections would be funded by tax payers, making them solely accountable to the voting public. No one would be allowed to contribute to campaigns or lawmakers for any reason, doing so would face massive fines and prison time.  This way politicians don't spend 20% of their time campaigning and fund raising, they don't pass bills that have low approval rating because it appeases donors and legislation is not written by lobbyists.

My issue is never the size of government, it is how it operates and the level of corruption.  I'll take a massive government that serves its people any day over a small one that allows abuses of the citizenry for self interest. 

The thing is, the bigger the government, the more incentive there is to get control of that government.  So, as government increases in size and/or scope, it becomes exponentially more difficult to keep out corrupting influences.  Therefore, the smaller the government, the better.  Even if a government is super corrupt, it matters very little if that government takes very little of your money and controls very little of your life.  

Biggerboat1 said:

VAMatt said:

That's *an* alternative.  But, its pretty unlikely.  Right now, government and big business are one in the same. Eliminate government and you eliminate the crony capitalist system that allows big companies to pass off their losses on to taxpayers, protects them from competition, and shields them from liability and it would seem to me that businesses would have a lot less power over the lives of the average person than they do now.  

So what would your alternative look like?

In my ideal world businesspeople would no longer be able to shield themselves from liability through the use of corporations (or similar limited liability structures).  If any government existed at all, it would be so small as to be of no use to crony capitalists.  Therefore, crony capitalists would cease to exist.  On the flipside, government would stay completely out of the way of all persons and companies, so that all decisions are solely those of the parties directly involved.  I can buy whatever I want from whoever I want, and anybody that wants to can try to sell me whatever they want.  Any entity can do anything it wants, so long as it doesn't infringe upon the rights of any other entity to do the same.  

To be completely honest though, I don't know exactly what my ideal world would look like.  That's kind of the whole point - no person or group of people knows what is best.  We just have to stay out of the way so that humanity can flourish.  

To put this all another way - philosophically speaking, I'm an anarchist.  Practically speaking, I'm a libertarian.