In the past the prevailing wisdom was don't trust big government, but big business was okay because the invisible hand of free markets would fix everything. Boy were we wrong! When did big business become worse than big government? Or were they always worse, they just had better propaganda?
What percentage of big business's could you consider pure evil vs % of countries governments?
This is why socialism doesn't work, because companies can be regulated, governments can't.
^^^^ totally agree!
Small local businesses support the community, big businesses support the foreign shareholders
Not sure about "pure evil" don't think there is such a thing.
But certainly many big businesses and governments are very self serving and ruthless.
If you look at any big business you will see the effects of big government. Big businesses can't exist without with big government.
Select to expand quotedecrepit said..
Not sure about "pure evil" don't think there is such a thing.
Well, you should look at the destruction of Gaza City.
Tens of thousands of innocent people buried under rubble from the daily shelling from the last 6 months or so.
Can you imagine sitting in your apartment complex and a 2000 pound bomb takes the apartment complex out killing and maiming nearly all in it.
35 percent of the buildings have been destroyed or suffered damage.
With nowhere to live, no access to electricity and little access to food and water the future for the survivors of the genocide is surely in other countries.
Select to expand quoteMobydisc said..
If you look at any big business you will see the effects of big government. Big businesses can't exist without with big government.
What does that actually mean?
Select to expand quoteFormulaNova said..Mobydisc said..
If you look at any big business you will see the effects of big government. Big businesses can't exist without with big government.
What does that actually mean?
A good example is the wastage of public money in big government spending. Sometimes it can work, but look at the Belt and Road, or Covid Printing money.
Or the recent spend on manufacturing of Solar Panels in Australia. Since it didn't work in Germany or even the leader in China bankrupted.
Big government spends so often are misguided.
Select to expand quotePcdefender said.. Well, you should look at the destruction of Gaza City.
Yes incredibly bad and sad, but doesn't meet any definition of pure evil I've come across
Checks and balances existed, but w lobbies, poor ethical grounds from government and public servants, they allowed these huge mergers and oligopolies consolidate and make the rules for themselves from inside regulatory agencies.
Competition is what keeps capitalism healthy and fair, until the 90's and early 2000's it was common news from agencies blocking mergers and issuing orders for a company to divest a sector if a M&A would control more than 60% a specific market.
Now feels like they even stimulate consolidation.
Select to expand quotebjw said..FormulaNova said..Mobydisc said..
If you look at any big business you will see the effects of big government. Big businesses can't exist without with big government.
What does that actually mean?
A good example is the wastage of public money in big government spending. Sometimes it can work, but look at the Belt and Road, or Covid Printing money.
Or the recent spend on manufacturing of Solar Panels in Australia. Since it didn't work in Germany or even the leader in China bankrupted.
Big government spends so often are misguided.
That doesn't address what I was asking. I was wondering why Mobydisc seems to think that big businesses can't exist without big government. What does that mean? ... and why?
I think sometimes people get caught up in thinking that public services are a waste of money. This is usually called out before an election by someone wanting to try and focus on the other guys and their obvious waste of money.
When is the last time you really witnessed wastage in hospitals or with the police? Sure, someone will give an anectode about that time they walked into a hospital and there were fifteen thousand nurses standing around but they didn't get attention immediately, but is this really wastage?
Similarly, a lot of jobs are done in government that need people to do them. You will only notice these roles when they disappear and you wonder why there is no one to do what you expected them to.
If we ran government as 'efficiently' as some people think, we would get very poor service for our money.
It still bugs me many years later that seemingly the same people that were blaming the government for 'too much red tape' then complained about lack of oversight when people died as a result of businesses with poor approaches to safety when installing insulation.
When is it 'red tape' and when is it 'good oversight'?
'Covid Printing money'.... what does that mean?
I will make an assumption that you are talking about the government stimulating the economy during Covid. This is a good thing, but can come with a headache afterwards. In Covid, people lost jobs, people were scared, people weren't sure what was going to happen. By encouraging people to spend in the economy, it actually pulls people out of what would otherwise be a recession. I think we were already in one or close to one before Covid and in some ways Covid helped us.
But the downside of stimulating the economy is inflation, and then you have to reign that in.
God help us when we next get a government that decides on 'austerity' when facing down the barrel of a recession. A good government spends enough to keep things ticking over. A bad one thinks keeping money locked up somehow helps the economy. It doesn't; it just stops it.
Select to expand quoteTequila ! said..
Checks and balances existed, but w lobbies, poor ethical grounds from government and public servants, they allowed these huge mergers and oligopolies consolidate and make the rules for themselves from inside regulatory agencies.
Competition is what keeps capitalism healthy and fair, until the 90's and early 2000's it was common news from agencies blocking mergers and issuing orders for a company to divest a sector if a M&A would control more than 60% a specific market.
Now feels like they even stimulate consolidation.
Who ever really expected big businesses to be self-censoring for the good of the public? They are there to make money, which is why its funny when someone decides to save money by outsourcing things to the private sector. Initially you might save money, but in the long run there is a need to make a profit and cutting services can be a good way to do that.
Competition is a good thing, but sometimes markets cannot sustain large businesses without help. If you have a big business that needs subsidies or tax protection, but otherwise they are beneficial to the economy or society, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
As an example, if farmers are given subsidies, but that provides an element of food security and greater employment, is that terrible?
Calls of 'big businesses or big government' sounds like our US based member is facing an election soon ;-) It's one of those things that draw your attention away from what really matters and sound so simple to the public that people fall for it.
Funny, now I think of it, the call for governments to control businesses to prevent monopolies or duopolies or any other unfair practice is far from having small governments. So, is a big government bad if it is controlling businesses to make them fairer to others?
Select to expand quotedecrepit said..Pcdefender said.. Well, you should look at the destruction of Gaza City.
Yes incredibly bad and sad, but doesn't meet any definition of pure evil I've come across
It goes without saying the mass murder of tens of thousands of innocent people is pure evil.
Tell me why it is not and then give us some examples what is pure evil in your mind.
Select to expand quoteFormulaNova said..
If we ran government as 'efficiently' as some people think, we would get very poor service for our money.
Poor service like councils?
Select to expand quotebjw said..FormulaNova said..
If we ran government as 'efficiently' as some people think, we would get very poor service for our money.
Poor service like councils?
I cannot tell what you are getting at there. More words needed.
Select to expand quotePcdefender said.. Tell me why it is not and then give us some examples what is pure evil in your mind.
You never answer any questions, but you expect me to??????
Select to expand quotedecrepit said..Pcdefender said.. Tell me why it is not and then give us some examples what is pure evil in your mind.
You never answer any questions, but you expect me to??????
Well, he is not going to answer that one either 
But if it helps, even if he gave an answer, it would make no sense, and if he even read your answers, he would ignore them.
We could release PM33 as an AI bot. It's sole intent is to not argue but identify conspiracy theories everywhere.
Look at large corporations and where they thrive. They thrive in nations with big governments. A big government consumes around 30% of a nation's GDP or more. The higher the percentage, the larger the corporations.
This is natural as large governments have more money to spend and large corporations are more apt to service the desires of a big government. Big government brings in more rules and regulations and big government is more capable of meeting compliance requirements than small business. Big business is more apt to lobby big government for policies that favour it at the expense of its smaller competition. The biggest threat to small business is big business in league with big government. What happened in COVID times illustrates this to a T. Big chain shops were allowed to trade while small businesses were forced to close.
Big government likes to sell off its assets to keep raising money to pay for stuff. The majority of these assets are purchased by big businesses.
Then we have public private partnerships which are effectively a licence from government for big businesses to rip off the public.
Then we have what is the most hidden relationship between big government and big business. Central banks and the fiat monetary system.
