I'll be honest, I'm wouldn't really consider myself very capitalist, but more corporatist, or social-corporatist to be precise.
That said, there are similarities between capitalism and corporatism, and so naturally I'll sometimes end up siding with capitalists in debates.
From what I've been able to see over the last few years though is the demise of capitalism overall. We bail out corporations (and just to clarify, corporatism is not to be confused with unfair government support for commercial enterprises), we want to raise tariffs, subsidize ranchers' food crops, turn to military Keynesianism, etc.
Are we sliding into ever more government control of the economy?
Now again, I'm all for government regulation of the economy, but control is something else. And worse yet, it would seem the control we're talking about makes socialism look good. At least with socialism, there is a philosophy behind it focussed, at least in intention even if not in results, on helping the poor and most vulnerable members of society, promoting more equality and social justice, etc.
What we seem to be seeing rather is increased regulation not based on any kind of rational philosophy, but rather on ad-hoc decision-making based on knee-jerk reactions, always focussed narrowly on short-term or sectoral solutions without paying attention to the global impact of this or that policy. In the end, we end up with government departments contradicting one another or undermining another department's policies, each trying to solve a problem in their own little backyard not realizing it's causing problems for the other.
We see this in increased antagonism to freer trade, ignoring the fact that it is reciprocal after all. We see it in sudden increases in recessionary military spending.
And worse yet, the departments themselves seem unregulated and ad hoc, not really knowing what they're doing. I was reading just last week that last year along the Federal government spent about 600,000$ on alcohol, mostly by DND. Well, does that not conflict with maintaining healthy soldiers, reducing the burden on our health care system, not making alcohol even more accessible to those with possible drinking problems, etc.?
Seriously. How do we end up spending 600,000$ in one year on alcohol alone, and that's just at the federal government level?
Isn't it time for government to claw itself back, regulate when appropriate while ensuring collaboration between all departments so as to not undermine each others' efforts (such as DND and provincial health care programmes), promoting international agreements that could bring about long-term mutual benefits etc. rather than this ad hoc government we have now?
That said, there are similarities between capitalism and corporatism, and so naturally I'll sometimes end up siding with capitalists in debates.
From what I've been able to see over the last few years though is the demise of capitalism overall. We bail out corporations (and just to clarify, corporatism is not to be confused with unfair government support for commercial enterprises), we want to raise tariffs, subsidize ranchers' food crops, turn to military Keynesianism, etc.
Are we sliding into ever more government control of the economy?
Now again, I'm all for government regulation of the economy, but control is something else. And worse yet, it would seem the control we're talking about makes socialism look good. At least with socialism, there is a philosophy behind it focussed, at least in intention even if not in results, on helping the poor and most vulnerable members of society, promoting more equality and social justice, etc.
What we seem to be seeing rather is increased regulation not based on any kind of rational philosophy, but rather on ad-hoc decision-making based on knee-jerk reactions, always focussed narrowly on short-term or sectoral solutions without paying attention to the global impact of this or that policy. In the end, we end up with government departments contradicting one another or undermining another department's policies, each trying to solve a problem in their own little backyard not realizing it's causing problems for the other.
We see this in increased antagonism to freer trade, ignoring the fact that it is reciprocal after all. We see it in sudden increases in recessionary military spending.
And worse yet, the departments themselves seem unregulated and ad hoc, not really knowing what they're doing. I was reading just last week that last year along the Federal government spent about 600,000$ on alcohol, mostly by DND. Well, does that not conflict with maintaining healthy soldiers, reducing the burden on our health care system, not making alcohol even more accessible to those with possible drinking problems, etc.?
Seriously. How do we end up spending 600,000$ in one year on alcohol alone, and that's just at the federal government level?
Isn't it time for government to claw itself back, regulate when appropriate while ensuring collaboration between all departments so as to not undermine each others' efforts (such as DND and provincial health care programmes), promoting international agreements that could bring about long-term mutual benefits etc. rather than this ad hoc government we have now?
