Re:Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
by zaidf on Thursday May 07, 2020 @05:57PM
(#23108841)
Wouldn’t governments also do all sorts of bad things if they were allowed to? History is full of examples and there are far more examples of rogue governments doing bad at scale than private businesses.
If there was something that inherently made governments to be “good” actors more than a person or a business, we wouldn’t need checks and balances.
Re:Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
by CPLX on Thursday May 07, 2020 @06:22PM
(#23109058)
I didn’t say they were good. I said they were democratic, and that the lead to better outcomes in the view of those who control those outcomes, which is a tautology, purposefully so.
That can lead to good or bad outcomes in your judgment depending on your values. But it’s fundamentally a different dynamic than a for profit entity.
The only thing that keeps businesses from claiming tax and police authority is the government monopoly on violence; they'd happily take if they could. Same goes for having to face the "market test": businesses certainly don't want to that and would happily get rid of it if governments allowed them to (or did not exist).