Okay, so to get things started up, I'm proposing a "would you rather" that has just come to mind here at nerd camp (I'm studying US History so economics has wormed it's way into my head).
Would you rather have Government control Industry, or Industry control Government? Discuss.
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That's truly a wonderful question. I think that it would be better to have government control industry, or at least in our situation. In a democracy such as ours, at least the people in some sense control the government. If businesses were to control politics, which in my opinion is what lobbyists are about, then the people would be subjugated to the whims of the big people.
ReplyDeleteAn idea I've had lately is the possibility of an economic system that relies on the CEO's of larger companies to be voted in instead of riding to the top. I'm not sure if that would or could succeed at all and it sounds absolutely ridiculous, but i think it comes to mind interesting things.
I would rather have government control industry, though in the end there are trade-offs either way.
ReplyDeleteAlthough industries end in serving the people by providing G&S, the primary concern of individual industrialists is selfish. Most industries are run by people who want to make money, not by people who want to work to help others, but unfortunately have to take just enough money to support themseves*. The latter are generally small business owners with little power. In the 1800s, the government had almost no control over industry, and most Americans suffered in some way from the lack of social interest.
Government is an organization which is (at least in pretense) free of self-interest and under contract to serve the people. The problem with a completely socialized system is the lack of the same personal interest that makes total capitalism unworkable. Soviet Russia undersupplied itself, got buried in its own bureaucracy, and had a chronic case of violent and self-interested dictators. With the incentive of competition gone, the people suffered.
Since 1900, American government regulation have offered some protection (it is no longer perfectly legal to sell diethylene glycol as medicine), but money is still power, and industries still control government through increasing privatization. The best system would incorporate both private and public interests. In our case, that means a huge shift in the socialism direction. However, this perfect socialist system has a lost of prerequisites and maintenance coasts if it is acrually going to work: 1. Strong cultural and ideological support, 2. A healthy, wealthy, functioning economy, and 3. Really nice, really smart leaders.
*Tangent: But do the Amish fit into that second group, too? If they do, they suggest a solution: government which is controlled by industry which is controlled by a social system. But the end result is theocracy, which is a government that controls industry.