dckingsfan wrote:In some cases, big money has definitely influenced our policies in the wrong way. But in many cases there were failed policies that were never fixed. I just gave you one issue where Employer Sponsored Healthcare was a good idea at the time but had unintended consequences - making us the one with the "most" out of whack system. It should be killed immediately. Another was baseline spending for our very valuable social services. These are fine examples where capitalists had little play or influence in crafting the bills.
Examples that you cite are also many. The prison industrial complex jumps to mind. The defense industrial complex being another. Or the constant addition of carveouts to our tax code. Examples where big money is constantly moving the needle.
So, I am half in agreement with you. The outsized influence of big money causes many of our problems. But I am half in disagreement in that government rarely kills bad programs.
I don't think you can disentangle things from big money so easily. Just because the concept of the starting point didn't start with big money doesn't mean there isn't an influence. Employer sponsored health care absolutely had input from larger employers. And killing it isn't so simple because short of better options to move on from where we are, it winds up being a non-starter, and there is every incentive from capitalists to prevent the better options because they absolutely will make less profits.
More than that, though, your health care example is where I prefer to look at capitalism beyond simply capitalists and separating certain people from others into defined groups. Everyone has a bit of capitalist in them. People who work for employers have that certain part of them that feels they're worth more than others and have earned their employer sponsored health care. They might eventually realize the flaws when they try to change jobs and realize they are effectively owned by their employer in a certain respect depending on the circumstances and they aren't going to realize the massive inefficiencies of the system because they see themselves "winning" the capitalism game relatively speaking.
That's the force that needs to be checked. It doesn't need to be eliminated. Capitalism harnesses it to great effect. Much like a nuclear reactor harnesses power extremely cheaply and efficiently but needs massive amounts of safety measures in place, so too does capitalism need similar safety measures or things get out of hand, only there isn't the immediate visual impact when things go wrong as there is with nuclear power and things get to simmer and change slowly over time.
