JT wrote:I don't disagree that the importance of political office holders is probably generally overvalued, and that the influence of other institutions such as business and media are undervalued. But enterprises that seek to meet societal needs, such as businesses (albeit by satisfying their self-interest), are important. Self-interest is a basic reality and, if properly regulated, is the primary engine of progress. Just ask my good friend Ayn Rand. It's much more efficient than anything Ted Kennedy can legislate.
BTW, I heard a while back that the movie rights to 'Atlas Shrugged' were sold. I would love to see a good, non-lib-assed, treatment of that classic.
Then it boils back down to what you consider as an enterprise meeting societal needs and what proper regulation is in comparison to myself or anyone else. Are the largest companies around
really meeting societal needs when you look closely? Are the arms manufacturers who build our defences, for example, really acting in our best interests by selling their goodies to the enemy?
Corporations have no discrimination over borders or nationality, so how are they in the interests of the people? By definition, a corp looks after its own needs, not what society needs. Whether it deals in something a society can do without is a different argument. Maybe we shouldn't complain about enterprising businesses farming out the jobs to cheaper parts of the world, as, hey, they're doing it in our best interests. Let's build build build, and subsidise a mini-nation of factories and call centres on the Mexican borders.
If you're genuinely growing as a company that is purely giving the customer what it wants, then there's no need at all to lobby/bribe/ blackmail/force law changes or close down the opposition through your financial clout and political connections.
I think there's more to democracy than the flawed neoclassical economics of Milton Friedman, Robert Solow et al (all laughingly given the title of Nobel Prize winners in Economics - a prize that doesn't exist!). Maybe, one day, the likes of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen will be spoken about in similar tones.
