Re:Moving Forward on Basic Income
by unclesaamm on Wednesday June 01, 2016 @10:42AM
(#11814686)
I find it misleading that American enterprise can ever be wholly "private", when it depends so much on regulation, subsidies, and public resources. Taxation goes to support the common infrastructure that makes any work possible. Problem?
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Unless private parties -- consumers -- buy stuff, there is no income. The government can intervene and distort things (and should -- I'm not a libertarian) but if there is no private commerce, there is nothing to tax.
In a society with no regulation, people still partake in commerce. It has lots of problems and I wouldn't want to live in, say, Somalia, but Somalis still engage in trade and the strongmen who run such places depend on that.
Re:Moving Forward on Basic Income
by marknutter on Wednesday June 01, 2016 @11:49AM
(#11815368)
> I find it misleading that American enterprise can ever be wholly "private"
It can, but not if the government grabs control of resources and industries. Do you really think corporations would simply sit on their hands if government services and resources went away? They would respond by filling the demand.
What depends on those things is our cronyism system that many people mistakenly believe to be capitalism.
Enterprises would benefit if the government stepped aside and let a true free market develop.