We Haven’t Had a True Free Enterprise System for Decades

longknife

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Sep 21, 2012
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I was never into economics but this article makes a whole lot of sense to me. The days of operating a private business without government intervention are long gone. Name one business without licenses, permits, taxes, or other impediments.


To paraphrase financial journalist Jim Grant, what we have is much closer to some sort of smiley-faced socialism. Government doesn’t fully own the means of production, but it directs the daylights out of them. Especially in financial markets.


Read more of this @ Capitalism vs. Smiley-Faced Socialism
 
I was never into economics but this article makes a whole lot of sense to me. The days of operating a private business without government intervention are long gone. Name one business without licenses, permits, taxes, or other impediments.


To paraphrase financial journalist Jim Grant, what we have is much closer to some sort of smiley-faced socialism. Government doesn’t fully own the means of production, but it directs the daylights out of them. Especially in financial markets.


Read more of this @ Capitalism vs. Smiley-Faced Socialism

Yes. It has been many decades, certainly more than a century. And the reason is because it was destructive. To put it in more modern terms, without all of that stuff there would not be a single program, computer or IT system in this country that didn't have the name Microsoft on it. Although it would be equally possible that Microsoft would never have existed at all.
 
Almost as soon as the Constitution was ratified our new government was involved in the economy. Some of the involvement was national, some state or state entity. There may be a nation or two where the government is not involved, but I know of none. Anyone?
 
Almost as soon as the Constitution was ratified our new government was involved in the economy. Some of the involvement was national, some state or state entity. There may be a nation or two where the government is not involved, but I know of none. Anyone?

of course that's stupid since even libertarians like our founders believed in the necessity of some govt involvement. THe commerce clause proves that but it was designed to enforce capitalism, not socialism as the treasonous liberals want.
 
I was never into economics but this article makes a whole lot of sense to me. The days of operating a private business without government intervention are long gone. Name one business without licenses, permits, taxes, or other impediments.


To paraphrase financial journalist Jim Grant, what we have is much closer to some sort of smiley-faced socialism. Government doesn’t fully own the means of production, but it directs the daylights out of them. Especially in financial markets.


Read more of this @ Capitalism vs. Smiley-Faced Socialism

Ah the good old days, when food wasn't inspected, and there was no health department that inspected restaurants.

When companies could just pour their oil and sewage right into rivers and lakes....or maybe into your backyard...

Ah but then the government had to come along and ruin that......
 
Ah the good old days, when food wasn't inspected, and there was no health department that inspected restaurants.

When companies could just pour their oil and sewage right into rivers and lakes....or maybe into your backyard...

Ah but then the government had to come along and ruin that......

Nobody is advocating any of that, but you already knew that. You know he has a point, but it goes against your worshiping of almighty government, so instead of rebutting him with a valid argument, because you can't, you resort absurd hyperbole.
 
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I was never into economics but this article makes a whole lot of sense to me. The days of operating a private business without government intervention are long gone. Name one business without licenses, permits, taxes, or other impediments.


To paraphrase financial journalist Jim Grant, what we have is much closer to some sort of smiley-faced socialism. Government doesn’t fully own the means of production, but it directs the daylights out of them. Especially in financial markets.


Read more of this @ Capitalism vs. Smiley-Faced Socialism

Ah the good old days, when food wasn't inspected, and there was no health department that inspected restaurants.

When companies could just pour their oil and sewage right into rivers and lakes....or maybe into your backyard...

Ah but then the government had to come along and ruin that......

dear, even libertarians are not anarchists. They too believe in some govt.

Do you understand?
 
I was never into economics but this article makes a whole lot of sense to me. The days of operating a private business without government intervention are long gone. Name one business without licenses, permits, taxes, or other impediments.


To paraphrase financial journalist Jim Grant, what we have is much closer to some sort of smiley-faced socialism. Government doesn’t fully own the means of production, but it directs the daylights out of them. Especially in financial markets.


Read more of this @ Capitalism vs. Smiley-Faced Socialism

What we have is more properly called fascism. It's fascism with a smiley face, but it's still fascism, and it can easily degrade into the other kind of fascism we are so familiar with.
 
I was never into economics but this article makes a whole lot of sense to me. The days of operating a private business without government intervention are long gone. Name one business without licenses, permits, taxes, or other impediments.


To paraphrase financial journalist Jim Grant, what we have is much closer to some sort of smiley-faced socialism. Government doesn’t fully own the means of production, but it directs the daylights out of them. Especially in financial markets.


Read more of this @ Capitalism vs. Smiley-Faced Socialism

Ah the good old days, when food wasn't inspected, and there was no health department that inspected restaurants.

When companies could just pour their oil and sewage right into rivers and lakes....or maybe into your backyard...

Ah but then the government had to come along and ruin that......

dear, even libertarians are not anarchists. They too believe in some govt.

Do you understand?

some libertarians are anarchists. They're called "anarcho-capitalists." More and more libertarians are succumbing to anarchism as they come to accept the fact that the term "limited government" is an oxymoron. Government will never allow itself to remain limited. All the incentives run in the other direction.
 
Government will never allow itself to remain limited. .

but government is merely a function of the electorate. If the electorate were inclined in a libertarian direction politicians would line up in the 1000's to be elected, famous, and to collect the $200k salary.

Thinking of govt as an independent being is done only because we don't want to blame the electorate for being responsible and stupid. Certainly one person becoming an anarcho capitalist does not change the govt one tiny bit and the likelihood of millions doing it seems unlikely and absurd. So, only if and when the electorate as a whole starts to move slowly to the right will the govt instantly follow.
 
Government will never allow itself to remain limited. .

but government is merely a function of the electorate. If the electorate were inclined in a libertarian direction politicians would line up in the 1000's to be elected, famous, and to collect the $200k salary.

Thinking of govt as an independent being is done only because we don't want to blame the electorate for being responsible and stupid. Certainly one person becoming an anarcho capitalist does not change the govt one tiny bit and the likelihood of millions doing it seems unlikely and absurd. So, only if and when the electorate as a whole starts to move slowly to the right will the govt instantly follow.

The electorate have been moving to the left since the Constitution was ratified and the government has followed.
 
Government will never allow itself to remain limited. .

but government is merely a function of the electorate. If the electorate were inclined in a libertarian direction politicians would line up in the 1000's to be elected, famous, and to collect the $200k salary.

Thinking of govt as an independent being is done only because we don't want to blame the electorate for being responsible and stupid. Certainly one person becoming an anarcho capitalist does not change the govt one tiny bit and the likelihood of millions doing it seems unlikely and absurd. So, only if and when the electorate as a whole starts to move slowly to the right will the govt instantly follow.

The electorate have been moving to the left since the Constitution was ratified and the government has followed.

well until Depression govt was very very tiny. it was only when depression began that people got the idea that govt could be helpful. Instead of help we got 15 years of depression and 5 years of world war.

And now we are more liberal than ever and more on wrong track than ever according to polls.
 
Government will never allow itself to remain limited. .

but government is merely a function of the electorate. If the electorate were inclined in a libertarian direction politicians would line up in the 1000's to be elected, famous, and to collect the $200k salary.

Thinking of govt as an independent being is done only because we don't want to blame the electorate for being responsible and stupid. Certainly one person becoming an anarcho capitalist does not change the govt one tiny bit and the likelihood of millions doing it seems unlikely and absurd. So, only if and when the electorate as a whole starts to move slowly to the right will the govt instantly follow.

The electorate have been moving to the left since the Constitution was ratified and the government has followed.

That's the nature of government. It continues to grow and it brainwashes people to believe it's as natural and necessary as the air you breath. Cancer also continues to grow from the day it first appears.
 
Government will never allow itself to remain limited. .

but government is merely a function of the electorate. If the electorate were inclined in a libertarian direction politicians would line up in the 1000's to be elected, famous, and to collect the $200k salary.

Thinking of govt as an independent being is done only because we don't want to blame the electorate for being responsible and stupid. Certainly one person becoming an anarcho capitalist does not change the govt one tiny bit and the likelihood of millions doing it seems unlikely and absurd. So, only if and when the electorate as a whole starts to move slowly to the right will the govt instantly follow.

The electorate have been moving to the left since the Constitution was ratified and the government has followed.

That's the nature of government. It continues to grow and it brainwashes people to believe it's as natural and necessary as the air you breath. Cancer also continues to grow from the day it first appears.
Another analogy might be, government is like our kids, they grow from useless except as objects of love to valuable needed assets and given more and more chores by the family.
 
Government will never allow itself to remain limited. .

but government is merely a function of the electorate. If the electorate were inclined in a libertarian direction politicians would line up in the 1000's to be elected, famous, and to collect the $200k salary.

Thinking of govt as an independent being is done only because we don't want to blame the electorate for being responsible and stupid. Certainly one person becoming an anarcho capitalist does not change the govt one tiny bit and the likelihood of millions doing it seems unlikely and absurd. So, only if and when the electorate as a whole starts to move slowly to the right will the govt instantly follow.

The electorate have been moving to the left since the Constitution was ratified and the government has followed.

That's the nature of government. It continues to grow and it brainwashes people to believe it's as natural and necessary as the air you breath. Cancer also continues to grow from the day it first appears.
Another analogy might be, government is like our kids, they grow from useless except as objects of love to valuable needed assets and given more and more chores by the family.

That's an analogy someone with brain damage might find persuasive. The rest of us have seen how government operates, so we only laugh at it.
 
Government will never allow itself to remain limited. .

but government is merely a function of the electorate. If the electorate were inclined in a libertarian direction politicians would line up in the 1000's to be elected, famous, and to collect the $200k salary.

Thinking of govt as an independent being is done only because we don't want to blame the electorate for being responsible and stupid. Certainly one person becoming an anarcho capitalist does not change the govt one tiny bit and the likelihood of millions doing it seems unlikely and absurd. So, only if and when the electorate as a whole starts to move slowly to the right will the govt instantly follow.

The electorate have been moving to the left since the Constitution was ratified and the government has followed.

That's the nature of government. It continues to grow and it brainwashes people to believe it's as natural and necessary as the air you breath. Cancer also continues to grow from the day it first appears.
Another analogy might be, government is like our kids, they grow from useless except as objects of love to valuable needed assets and given more and more chores by the family.

That's an analogy someone with brain damage might find persuasive. The rest of us have seen how government operates, so we only laugh at it.
So even as we breathe and laugh, the government is probably helping many people that indeed have brain damage, and others also see that government help, and maybe that is why government continues to grow?
 
Government will never allow itself to remain limited. .

but government is merely a function of the electorate. If the electorate were inclined in a libertarian direction politicians would line up in the 1000's to be elected, famous, and to collect the $200k salary.

Thinking of govt as an independent being is done only because we don't want to blame the electorate for being responsible and stupid. Certainly one person becoming an anarcho capitalist does not change the govt one tiny bit and the likelihood of millions doing it seems unlikely and absurd. So, only if and when the electorate as a whole starts to move slowly to the right will the govt instantly follow.

If you're arguing that we can get "limited government" by electing better politicians, you are impossibly naïve. for one thing, no matter what platform politicians run on, once they get elected their priorities change. They become creatures of the government. They are subject to pressures and incentives that make it virtually impossible to cut the budgets of government agencies. Has any government agency ever had a true cut in its budget? Never. Even if we elected 535 pure and true libertarians to Congress, they would soon be voting to expand funding for Obamacare and Midnight basketball.

Second, the kind of people who run for office are not the kind who tell the truth or who have principles. Politicians are unscrupulous scumbags, not libertarians. You will never see a significant number of principled libertarians elected to Congress. government can't be reformed any more than the Mafia can be reformed.

the bottom line is that government can't be reformed from the inside. anyone in the government is more likely to become corrupted than to see the light. You can't fight the disease by becoming infected.
 
some libertarians are anarchists. They're called "anarcho-capitalists." More and more libertarians are succumbing to anarchism as they come to accept the fact that the term "limited government" is an oxymoron. Government will never allow itself to remain limited. All the incentives run in the other direction.[/QUOTE]

That's exactly what I am. An anarcho-capitalist![/QUOTE]

Welcome to the board. Prepare to be infuriated and disgusted.
 

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