[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ChainLegacy

I've already explained their unfair advantage. If you do not want to accept/believe my reasoning that is fine but I'm not going to keep repeating myself. Big business/the ultra-rich should not have the government on their team, and that IS the way things are in the US. Joojoobees has already provided some information regarding that fact, if you want more look it up yourself.

Not every industry would change. Malls, electronics distribution centers, etc are industries that inherently gravitate towards large businesses. All I'm saying is, SOME industries (food, clothing, general stores) are not accurately represented because of collusion between the gov. and big business. The economies of scale are directly exacerbated by the government providing advantages to these industries. So yes, cutting down on the gov. regulations that provide these inherent advantages to corporations would change this state.

I'm not saying they would get rid of economies of scale, or that a small government is some kind of magical cure like the last bit of your post states. But currently, as the US is right now, the government helps out/is controlled by large businesses, and how else do you stop that issue other than to cut down on the government's influence? As I said earlier, large government does not necessarily mean that big business will wield the kind of power it does here in the US, but here, currently in 2010, IT DOES. They have hijacked the system. Either we limit their ability to manipulate the system, or create an entirely new one. I think the former is at least worth a try before we are forced into a revolution to accomplish the latter.

And of course customers aren't buying the alternative goods I've suggested - the alternatives are suffocated by advantages corporations shouldn't have. Yes, economies of scale exist in a free-market, but not to the extent we see today. These are abnormally powerful economies of scale and they exist even in industries where they shouldn't. You're French, right? I've been to France before once, and though I didn't stay long enough to get to know the country very well, I do remember there being some pretty awesome options in terms of locally grown foods. Lots of the US has NO such option, and have nothing other than a Wal-Mart running their local economy. So where is their choice? You claim the consumer will just choose what they want most, but how is this true when the consumer is deprived of alternatives, and when the alternatives exist, they are at a higher price than they should be according to the free market?

Business should be allowed to fail, and they shouldn't have the government on their side. This isn't about taxes. Our taxes will fall in a free market, but it is a secondary issue because the main problem is what we have today is NOT a free market and our country does not follow its constitution. Is suggesting we return to these philosophies really so radical an idea?

If businesses are allowed to fail, it would collapse the world economy because of globalisation. Money, in a sense, doesn't solely flow through just one country : it flows through the entire world in terms of revaluation and credit. It is the private business sectors that provide jobs AND money for the country, and that private sectors generate more value than government owned companies due to natural competition of prices, supply and demand of products, services or employment.

Regarding businesses manipulating the government, it is due to the "legalisation" of coffee money through a process called lobbying, where politicians get their money by through promises to benefit the companies in exchange for money to fund their campaigns. That is the real problem, not the Keynesian structure people have been harping about. Creating a new system creates more problems in the short term, and exponentially into the long term because there isn't as much idealism as compared to our "free market" right now.

If you fancy a change, please present a new system outline. The other choices possible would be either state capitalism like China or Ugandan Military controlled economy. In Macroeconomics, the only three possible economy types are Free, Mixed or Controlled, so it is either one of the "lesser evils".