It might be because they’ve worked in the private sector but not the public sector. Once I’d worked in a team that spanned across different government departments it changed my view forever, it was like the most dysfunctional companies I’d worked for but with huge budgets and no chance of change through competition or being bought up etc. You can’t unsee waste like that.

My dad was a socialist as a young man. Being in the military for 23 years cured him of that. We lived on military bases for years, and seeing how they operated is worthy of much sad hilarity.

I also toured East Berlin in 1969 at the height of the Cold War. Modern folk often extol how great the USSR was. They'll tell me the Wall was built to keep the West out. Well, I've seen it with my own eyes. Dingy, gray, and sad.

The bus slipped right in through Checkpoint Charlie with just a passport check. Exiting was another story entirely. We all had to exit the bus while guards with machine guns gave it a very thorough search, including underneath.

I, for one, welcome you sharing your point of view. It’s a breath of fresh air. HN is certainly very different from around 15 years ago when the ethos used to be “libertarianism or GTFO”. I remember getting a heated response for merely suggesting that government might have some role. I guess the change is due to the shift from focus on startups to general technology. It’s just another form of eternal September.

Thanks. The government does have a critical role in free markets.

I am afraid it's this forums policy, as well. I got rate-limited and my votes don't seem to count because I got into heated debates with leftists with clear agendas.

I used to think that I had a duty to educate and to offer an alternative to the anti-capitalist propaganda prevalent here. It doesn't seem that this is wanted, I am afraid.

I kinda' gave up, life is too short and my time is rather precious...

But I do deeply respect and appreciate your contributions, and your reputation and quality of arguments seems to protect you from the regular muzzling. Keep up the good work!

dang has been very nice to me. I try not to do anything that would change that.

For example, I criticize leftist ideas, not leftist people.

> Sometimes I feel I'm the only one on HN who is in favor of free markets.

Most people are for free markets that have no negative externalities. The problem is that very few, if any, markets have no negative externalities, therefore they cannot be completely free.

If you follow my posts, I have dealt with this issue many times. For example, pollution. The leftist viewpoint is using the banhammer along with the government micromanaging it with regulations. The free market viewpoint is to "internalize the externalities" by taxing the pollution.

Want less CO2 emissions? Tax the C content of fuels. That will work far, far better than all the "ban ICE car sales by 2035" and other blunderbuss approaches.

> The leftist viewpoint is using the banhammer along with the government micromanaging it with regulations. The free market viewpoint is to "internalize the externalities" by taxing the pollution.

Internalizing the externalities requires stringent regulations. That is a leftist position too.

> Want less CO2 emissions? Tax the C content of fuels.

If only it were that simple. This disproportionately impacts poorer people. This is why you create incentives for manufacturers to create alternatives, like EV, and then you can carbon tax fuels when those alternatives are available.