I see no chance of that winning voter approval. What I mean by a winning plan is one that will win votes to overturn the corporate capture of our government. The democratic capitalism that built our strong economy worked well until it was perverted by the wordsmiths. I don't advocate a pure socialist solution. Bernie got it wrong. The pr…
I see no chance of that winning voter approval. What I mean by a winning plan is one that will win votes to overturn the corporate capture of our government. The democratic capitalism that built our strong economy worked well until it was perverted by the wordsmiths. I don't advocate a pure socialist solution. Bernie got it wrong. The problem is a lack of democracy in American capitalism because democracy would put the majority consumer class in charge of the markets, not the oligarchs. We don't need democratic socialism because we have not given democratic capitalism a proper chance. Neither capitalism nor socialism work without real democracy. Just as corporate feudalism is not capitalism, the oligarchies that call themselves socialist are not socialism when the consumers are not controlling the government that controls the markets. Our problem is corporate capture of our government. If we were a real democratic republic, the people would determine the balance between private business and government run or delegated business. Beware of one solution trying to answer all questions. Capitalist competition has proven most efficient, but many functions are not amenable to competition, such as municipal water systems.
By the way, the reason municipal services fail causing people to wrongly turn to outsourcing, is a lack of accountability. A lot of revenue flows through municipal services. If they are a division of political government, they will be exploited. The CEO of any enterprise agency should be elected by the ratepayers. If appointed by elected general officials, contracts will be used to extort political donations and co-mingled funds with a city or state treasury will be misdirected. Best yet, municipal services should be independent entities so that the leaders are directly accountable to voters for their singular mission and no funds or authority is co-mingled with unrelated agencies.
Dennis + Marc, Scale is a determinative factor. Democracies are impossible while Oligarchies thrive in large states such as the US, Russia and China. As Reinhold Niebur and others recognized, democracies exist only in small populations and small states, eg ideally no larger than a town meeting.
I see no chance of that winning voter approval. What I mean by a winning plan is one that will win votes to overturn the corporate capture of our government. The democratic capitalism that built our strong economy worked well until it was perverted by the wordsmiths. I don't advocate a pure socialist solution. Bernie got it wrong. The problem is a lack of democracy in American capitalism because democracy would put the majority consumer class in charge of the markets, not the oligarchs. We don't need democratic socialism because we have not given democratic capitalism a proper chance. Neither capitalism nor socialism work without real democracy. Just as corporate feudalism is not capitalism, the oligarchies that call themselves socialist are not socialism when the consumers are not controlling the government that controls the markets. Our problem is corporate capture of our government. If we were a real democratic republic, the people would determine the balance between private business and government run or delegated business. Beware of one solution trying to answer all questions. Capitalist competition has proven most efficient, but many functions are not amenable to competition, such as municipal water systems.
By the way, the reason municipal services fail causing people to wrongly turn to outsourcing, is a lack of accountability. A lot of revenue flows through municipal services. If they are a division of political government, they will be exploited. The CEO of any enterprise agency should be elected by the ratepayers. If appointed by elected general officials, contracts will be used to extort political donations and co-mingled funds with a city or state treasury will be misdirected. Best yet, municipal services should be independent entities so that the leaders are directly accountable to voters for their singular mission and no funds or authority is co-mingled with unrelated agencies.
Dennis + Marc, Scale is a determinative factor. Democracies are impossible while Oligarchies thrive in large states such as the US, Russia and China. As Reinhold Niebur and others recognized, democracies exist only in small populations and small states, eg ideally no larger than a town meeting.