That's a pretty good red herring, Tom. Who's in favor of pork? Politicians, fulltime; specific beneficiaries of it when they're receiving it, though recipients rarely shy from criticizing the pork other people get. But disgust with porkbarrel spending cuts across all ideological lines. We all see it as simple corruption.

You're trivializing your own views to some degree, because I know you want change far more fundamental than reining-in piecemeal corruption of Congress. Pork doesn't reflect policy or any values guiding policy, but I think you want a fundamental change in values and policy that would affect all government spending. Pork is just noise on top of policy.

Your objections to the various ideas I've tossed out demonstrate an important point: The system as it is today is the result of the long coevolution of public and private power, and isn't easily altered. The situation isn't the result of a conscious conspiracy to undermine business and thus destroy America; it's the result of a social evolution that's produced a system robust enough to defend itself and resist change. The two loci of power are so tightly intertwined in a symbiotic relationship after two centuries that it seems impossible to find any one thread to pull or button to push that will magically and painlessly achieve the change we both want: Less scope for somebody else to control our lives.

I don't think there's much utility in scapegoating one partner of the mated pair, because they're in collusion. I believe my interests are a superset of yours: I think that concentrations of power in general are subversive of democracy and freedom. Our entire system of government speaks clearly, almost obsessively, of that concern by the Founders. I agree with them, and I'm not ideologically blinded to the contribution of one side to the problem after 200 years of evolution.

Both aspects of the twinned beast of Power must be tamed or neither will be tamed. Diminish the power of one and the other will only grow to fill the vacuum, and your life will be no more your own than before. You're dreaming if you think you can address the problem only by addressing the size of government. What you really should want is to reduce the power of anybody to control your life, government or oligarch.