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“ The second lesson of Marx is that an alignment between Big Government and Big Business is to be feared more than anything else. ”

Yes. Monopolies come from regulatory capture, not from laissez faire capitalism. Most of the problems in the American economy come from cronyism and regulatory capture where a corporation and the regulators tasked with oversight of that industry get in bed together. This is why businesses like Facebook actually ask for more regulations in their industry. Better yet, they’ll help write those regulations.

“ Few who loathe the billionaire class actually realise that even if one confiscated all billionaire wealth in America it would only run American government for roughly six months. ”

Exactly.

“ Where the Right goes wrong is in imagining that all government is bad- the National Weather Service can only work through international the co-operation which exists outside of competition and it does a fairly good job at helping citizens protect their private property rights through advance warning of pending disasters.”

The few things government should do (and I think it should be very few as someone who voted Libertarian in the last election), it should do very well. Small government shouldn’t be ineffective. We should actually want a highly effective government that can accomplish a specific set of functions. I just believe that set should also be limited.

“ Historically, there are plenty of business partnerships which were comprised of liberals dreaming big and hard-working conservatives keeping them on task, instead of exploring new and exciting ideas- it was a partnership which paid off time and again in the world of business. I think this is because liberals are great at generating new ideas and terrible at vetting them, whereas natural conservative scepticism is great for filtering the great ideas from the terrible.”

This is actually a good idea for government agencies. It’s not original to me, but it would be great if in every executive agency meeting there was a libertarian/Ron-Swanson-figure to ask, “what if we did nothing?” Or “why should we do anything at all?” Not because the answer is always, “yes let’s do nothing,” but because it will force hard conversations about priorities and result in better solutions in the end. People make better decisions when forced to actually reason out why they are taking their actions.

I haven’t read Marx, except for the maybe parts of the Communist Manifesto. But I don’t exactly buy the idea that we’re in late-stage capitalism. If so, what will replace it? What comes next? As far as I can tell, late-stage capitalism is not that different from middle-stage capitalism. In fact, we might just call it capitalism. No qualifier.

The present always feels late until it becomes the past because we think we’re living in the future and we can’t imagine that the future could go on in much the same way that the past did. 2021 feels like a big number. But so did 1948. So did 1991. And so will 2053.

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> the basic prophecies of Socialism didn’t come true.

Yet. I'm not a commie but from what I know of Marxist theory we are in exactly the late-stage capitalism that he predicted would precede the final collapse. 08' was a foretaste.

> and the US an anaemic 1.13%- ... It turns out resentment and anti-capitalism is terminally bad for the revenue.

They say that up until about the 80's in Canada corporations paid about half of all taxes and it was the time of greatest equality and greatest hope for the future. It is not resentment that causes me to say that 1.13% is very much too low, it is the fact that it is very much too low.

> even if one confiscated all billionaire wealth in America it would only run American government for roughly six mo

nths.

One hears memes like that. OTOH one also hears that the top 1% own more than the bottom 90% I can't help but be tempted by the thought that if we liquidated the top 1%, Lenin-wise, the wealth of the bottom 90% would double. Jeff is no doubt having fun with his rockets but the socialist in me wonders how many affordable dwellings might be built with the money.

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Sep 27, 2021Liked by Geary Johansen

"Marx was right about the end results of competition"

What was Marx's right take on competition? Is the notion that socialist nations won't themselves end up competing for natural resources and international trade? Sure, they get monopoly power within a nation (as if that were a good idea), but not across them. And good socialism would certainly have to be open to the idea of competition or it would stagnate rapidly, and if selected it home-grown products/services over better ones from other nations, it will fall behind.

"Government needs to get back to the core business of insuring fair rules to the game, without the perennial preference shown to large players and big donors. "

No government will do this. Politicians only exist to buy more voters, keep citizens comfortable enough to avoid revolutions, and repay donors. In socialism, this just occurs through state enterprises; in fascism, but making enterprises do the bidding of the state.

Even the US Constitution which tried to make this limited federal power clear couldn't hold off more than 100 years before politicians and courts realized they could just redefine (newspeak) the meaning and grasp all the power they can. I pay twice as much to the federal government as to my state/county/city, yet that's entirely the opposite of the clear intent of that Constitution. Turns out the law is whatever power says it is, just like it had been throughout history.

"Few who loathe the billionaire class actually realise that even if one confiscated all billionaire wealth in America it would only run American government for roughly six months."

And that wouldn't even make a dent in the debt, plus it would kill those businesses and cause massive job losses and block all future innovation and investment.

"the National Weather Service can only work through international the co-operation which exists outside of competition and it does a fairly good job at helping citizens protect their private property rights through advance warning of pending disasters."

Always funny how the smallest and least interesting government programs are the examples of what works in government. It's like when people point to water, sewage, roads, libraries and parks, things that don't really benefit from competition or would be hard to manage in practice. And yet many libraries are closing, roads/bridges are crumbling and we even had the Flint water crisis, California's water mismanagement giving big discounts on water to poorly managed agriculture, etc. And it's not even clear that competing weather forecasters wouldn't do a better job, like how we suffer the normal delays and high expenses for FDA/CDC drug testing/approvals/certifications.

"I think the socialist urge- when construed as the urge to help"

This used to be call charity when people voluntarily help groups that themselves have actual compassion and even competition on how best to help; and the rich have created great institutions using their wealth. Government does charity rather poorly, too, as demonstrated by public housing, rent control, inner city/rural public schools, medicaid, food stamps, affirmative action, etc.

But then my libertarian faith hasn't gotten me more than anger, dread and laughter at the government they force on us. People grumble about systemic racism, never-ending wars, mass incarceration, poor immigration/border security, failing schools, government housing, crazy tax laws, too big to fail, massive and absolutely normal deficits, questionable elections, failure to tax negative externalities, silly drug laws, etc.... and then say what government should do instead.

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Sep 27, 2021Liked by Geary Johansen

Interesting. Having a job/income should be moved down the maslow pyramid to physiological? I can see how job & purpose are related, and purpose might be categorized as self actualization.

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