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Re:David Simon: 'There are now two Americas. My country is a... by dnautics on Monday December 09, 2013 @02:40AM (#6873242)
Nobody here is claiming that markets are perfect. However, the claim is that economic redistribution on the part of government will over time fail to help the very constitutents they are supposed to protect and instead enrich the rich. This has happened time after time and shows no sign of stopping because of fundamental problems, which you partially hit on when you talked about regulatory capture (and goldman sachs, which uses so much state privilege that it's not entirely clear how much 'free market' there is in that company). The point is, that regulatory capture is inevitable.

"[The socialists declare] that the State owes subsistence, well-being, and education to all its citizens; that it should be generous, charitable, involved in everything, devoted to everybody; ...that it should intervene directly to relieve all suffering, satisfy and anticipate all wants, furnish capital to all enterprises, enlightenment to all minds, balm for all wounds, asylums for all the unfortunate, and even aid to the point of shedding French blood, for all oppressed people on the face of the earth. Who would not like to see all these benefits flow forth upon the world from the law, as from an inexhaustible source? ... But is it possible? ... Whence does [the State] draw those resources that it is urged to dispense by way of benefits to individuals? Is it not from the individuals themselves? How, then, can these resources be increased by passing through the hands of a parasitic and voracious intermediary? ...Finally...we shall see the entire people transformed into petitioners. Landed property, agriculture, industry, commerce, shipping, industrial companies, all will bestir themselves to claim favors from the State. The public treasury will be literally pillaged.

And here is the clincher (think very hard about the last sentence):

Everyone will have good reasons to prove that legal fraternity should be interpreted in this sense: "Let me have the benefits, and let others pay the costs." Everyone's effort will be directed toward snatching a scrap of fraternal privilege from the legislature. The suffering classes, although having the greatest claim, will not always have the greatest success."

In other words. It's perfectly reasonable for society to want to do things that go against the precept of "profit first". But if society should want to do such a thing, it should do it through private charity and not through the coffers of the state.

I practice what I preach. I volunteer every week feeding sick people and personally run a non-profit scientific corporation.

Re:David Simon: 'There are now two Americas. My country is a... by dreamfactory on Monday December 09, 2013 @03:16PM (#6876545)
> This has happened time after time and shows no sign of stopping because of fundamental problems

Maybe in the US but it's not a fundamental of governments generally.