There is no difference between the government taking over a private industry, and a government taking control of everything a private industry does. None. In economic terminology, the original word for total state control of theoretically private industry was called "fascism."

You don't want the government to take over the cable industry. You just want the government to be able to tell the cable industry how to package their product, what prices to charge, what they can pay executives, where they can build facilities, how to pay wages, how much they can spend on advertising, what bonuses they can pay, and everything else down to what size toilet stalls they can have.

Nobody is kidding anyone here. In the same way that "government" in the mouth of a liberal means "Democrats in Washington D.C.," "regulation" means "total government control." For a test of this, ask a liberal what they think should NOT be regulated in a business. Bring a chair and a good book while they think about it.

In places where this has been done, the results have been disastrous.

Every time.

And like your friend, you need to stop making things up without evidence. The idea that business would destroy us all if not restrained by the incorruptible gods of the Federal government is a delusion, sold to you by people who are anything but incorruptible, and have a great deal to gain by dismantling the private sector and taking control of it.

It's weird how gullible people are when the government tells them something so obviously self-serving. It's as if McDonalds was considered the prime source for nutrition information, and everybody just nodded like bobble-head dolls when told what we really need to do for good health is eat more Big Macs.