Corruption
I think we've cut to the heart of the matter: You're simply anti-government. Period.
Stripped of the hype:
Who set it up so that the state controls imports and exports? The right to start a business in a certain place? Government monopolies? The power to punish and reward with taxes?
Maybe the people in Washington who live on power like a plant lives on sunlight had a little something to do with it?
...you're simply objecting to the very concept of government. A government is a regional political organization which enforces laws of commerce, including imports and exports, and which has the power to levy taxes.
That's what any government does, whether it's organized as a representative democratic republic or a feudal monarchy.
In fact there is no "minimal government" you want, because any government is too much government. You want no government.
It's not much of a surprise, but once again I'm reminded that there's no satisfying you Conservatives.
Don't you get it? Take that power down a few notches and the established government/industry cliques lose power, and those who are being kept down by it will gain.
Do you honestly think that making companies smaller, while leaving unchanged the government's control over how business is done, is going to fix one damn thing?
Didn't you read a word that I wrote? What did you think I meant when I wrote "we have to do it carefully with both sides standing down in equal measure."? I've said I'm offering a quid pro quo, I talk about carefully-negotiated reductions in force...My original offer in full was:
[Robert] Tell ya what: I'll stand down if you will. That is, if you'll agree to laws that limit the size of corporate entities to a more egalitarian level, say $100 million in revenue, and corporations that reach that level must be split, and antitrust laws are strengthened to block their natural tendency to recoalesce like little Terminator Mk II globs; then I'll agree to proportional constraints on the size of government. Sound fair?(emphasis added retroactively)
Damn you, Tom, all right, you win, you accept my offer and I accept yours: We'll proportionately reduce the size of both business and government. I agree to your terms.
That was actually easier than I thought it was going to be. Pleasure doing business with you, Tom.