18 Apr 04
We all (?) know there is, or should be, a separation from Church and State and for good reasons. It is beneficial for both Church ánd State in my opinion.
Now I've been wondering wouldn't it be a good idea to study how we could achieve a separation between Big Business and State in order to diminish or even remove the domineering influence of Big Business on politics ?
The Ten Million Dollar Question is of course : How can this be done ?
But first: Do you like the idea ?
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18 Apr 04
Originally posted by ivanhoeOf course I like the idea, but I've already held one communist rant today...don't want to get too repetitive 😉
We all (?) know there is, or should be, a separation from Church and State and for good reasons. It is beneficial for both Church ánd State in my opinion.
Now I've been wondering wouldn't it be a good idea to study how we could achieve a separation between Big Business and State in order to diminish or even remove the domineering influence of Big Bus ...[text shortened]... on Dollar Question is of course : How can this be done ?
But first: Do you like the idea ?
.
19 Apr 04
Originally posted by ivanhoeThere are two kinds of influence that business has on politics:
We all (?) know there is, or should be, a separation from Church and State and for good reasons. It is beneficial for both Church ánd State in my opinion.
Now I've been wondering wouldn't it be a good idea to study how we could achieve a separation between Big Business and State in order to diminish or even remove the domineering influence of Big Bus ...[text shortened]... on Dollar Question is of course : How can this be done ?
But first: Do you like the idea ?
.
Direct - Companies help fund the election campaigns of political parties, and in return expect favours.
Indirect - The government is aware that if it adopts policies which are seen as unfavourable to business, companies will go bust or decide it's cheaper to operate abroad and the economy will suffer.
Direct influence is bad, and I'd much prefer political parties to be funded by a combination of government money and private donations, but with a cap on how big the private donations can be.
Indirect influence is inevitable: if you make it more expensive to do business in your country, some companies or parts of companies will not be able to make a profit any more, so will close down or reduce in size. As for companies moving abroad, this could be reduced by protectionist measures (look at the US's 'America First' policy). However protectionism tends to reduce efficiency, so consumers will suffer, because the goods they want are now more expensive, or they are subsidising inefficient companies through their taxes, and other countries will suffer, because they can't sell their goods as readily in your country.