Steve & LaSalle make interesting points and in many ways they show two sides of the same coin. Untrammeled capitalism and total state control both trample workers and citizens rights and concentrate power and wealth to the few. We need a dynamic conflict between private and state interests to balance the two.
Yes. "In a sense". That sense being the exact right sense. Centralized power is dangerous. It doesn't matter if the power is corrupted by your scary corporations or Hugo chavez or saddam Hussein or Kim Jong un or Barack Obama. You have to always struggle to reduce the size and scope of government, so you lessen the incentive for corruption. Corruption is inevitable. But if the government isn't controlling very much the corruptin is less damaging. This is why we have the checks on power and the bicameral legislature. This is why gridlock is good. This is why taxes and spending should be reduced, as much as possible, all the time.
Capitalism can't put you in jail. Government can. If coroporations abuse their customers they lose them. If they screw their workers they lose them. If they take on risky sub-prime loans trying to turn an insane profit they go out of business. Wait. No. Fuck!!! The government will bail them out if they do that last one.
I agree up to a point, however when you get crony capitalism like we are getting now, companies are more and more protected from their risk taking by a government. Look at TARP & the banks, the defense industry, and now with the deals made with BHO by big pharma, hospitals and insurance and even GM & Chrysler. Also look how business executatives and top level government employees move between the two. There is more protection for the uber companies as LaSalle noted and less for the true engine of capitalism (and the one you defend above) for the small and medium business. They are being squeezed and like middle income americans caught in the vice of a grasping government and crony big business. BTW your last sentence is spot on when you talk about the "too big to fail" sector. Don't see mom & pop business getting similar treatment. One last point uber companies can have as effective means to silence you and ruin you as government putting you in jail.
We learned under Dubya Bush that the Republican talk loudly about cutting spending, but they never actually do so, in fact they raise spending. Once burnt, twice cautious.
Don't be stupid. Our Federal System and checks and balances prevent centralized government. Ours in no way resembles, North Korea, Iraq, or Venzuela. How foolish. Your last shreds of credibility slip away . . .
i didnt say we were like those places, i said centralized power is dangerous. and it is. please try to pay attention.
