Part of the semantics issue is ...we are struggling with opposite extremes.
If you ever get a chance, watch the film "The Big Short" which is about what happened in the US in the 1990s -2008, when the housing market was deregulated and crashed as a result. The SEC wasn't regulating it. People could flip houses and sell mortgages, and they could also buy up mortgages then sell them, costing people their homes. As a result of the massive deregulation initiated by the Bush administration and to a degree Clinton and Reagan, we ended up with over a million people homeless.
That said, I do agree the opposite extreme doesn't work either -- which is what Europe has already discovered. While the US went crazy towards Capitalism, Europe went in the opposite direction. So in a way we can inform each other, because you've seen how the extreme left doesn't work and I've seen how the extreme right doesn't.
I remember France during the 1980s, when it went very close to pure socialism and ran into trouble. As did East Berlin which went way too far in that direction. I actually visited East Berlin in 1980. So saw it during the cold war.
And I work for a government agency, so know first hand how government organizations are no better than private ones. I've worked in both -- they both have their issues. There are more employee protections in government, but also problems. In some ways I prefer private industry. In some, government. It's honestly a toss-up.
But monopolies don't work. Here, in the US, we have a bigger problem with corporate monopolies than government ones. We have the exact opposite situation that you are scared of. Amazon is about to buy Whole Foods...which I find unsettling. And I got laid off back in 2006 from a health insurance company -- when it was swallowed by a corporation that was basically buying up all the health insurance companies around the country. And as a result of this people lost pensions, jobs, etc.
But, if the government did this -- it would be no better. I do not want a government owned entertainment industry or press. Which is different than government subsidized endowment of the arts or public broadcasting. Their's no government control there just funding.
In the US, the government only subsidizes and funds the essential services, but right now, Trump et al are threatening to defund these services or remove them.
The idea of "nation states" translates differently in American terms. Because we have a different system. Each state here is part of a centralized federal government, where each state has a representative and voice. So when you say, nation states, I interpret that you are saying that each state should operate without a centralized federal government, which would be akin to saying that Great Britain should be split up into just Ireland, Scotland, Wales, etc, and no centralized government. I also have issues with nationalism since I think it is the reason we keep having wars. The European Union was in part created by France and Germany to stop the Wars...it happened right after WWII. France and Germany and Italy and Spain finally got tired of going to war with each other all the time. (Can't say I blame them...because seriously 98% of European History is warfare.)
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If you ever get a chance, watch the film "The Big Short" which is about what happened in the US in the 1990s -2008, when the housing market was deregulated and crashed as a result. The SEC wasn't regulating it. People could flip houses and sell mortgages, and they could also buy up mortgages then sell them, costing people their homes. As a result of the massive deregulation initiated by the Bush administration and to a degree Clinton and Reagan, we ended up with over a million people homeless.
That said, I do agree the opposite extreme doesn't work either -- which is what Europe has already discovered.
While the US went crazy towards Capitalism, Europe went in the opposite direction. So in a way we can inform each other, because you've seen how the extreme left doesn't work and I've seen how the extreme right doesn't.
I remember France during the 1980s, when it went very close to pure socialism and ran into trouble. As did East Berlin which went way too far in that direction. I actually visited East Berlin in 1980. So saw it during the cold war.
And I work for a government agency, so know first hand how government organizations are no better than private ones. I've worked in both -- they both have their issues. There are more employee protections in government, but also problems. In some ways I prefer private industry. In some, government. It's honestly a toss-up.
But monopolies don't work. Here, in the US, we have a bigger problem with corporate monopolies than government ones. We have the exact opposite situation that you are scared of. Amazon is about to buy Whole Foods...which I find unsettling. And I got laid off back in 2006 from a health insurance company -- when it was swallowed by a corporation that was basically buying up all the health insurance companies around the country. And as a result of this people lost pensions, jobs, etc.
But, if the government did this -- it would be no better. I do not want a government owned entertainment industry or press. Which is different than government subsidized endowment of the arts or public broadcasting. Their's no government control there just funding.
In the US, the government only subsidizes and funds the essential services, but right now, Trump et al are threatening to defund these services or remove them.
The idea of "nation states" translates differently in American terms. Because we have a different system.
Each state here is part of a centralized federal government, where each state has a representative and voice. So when you say, nation states, I interpret that you are saying that each state should operate without a centralized federal government, which would be akin to saying that Great Britain should be split up into just Ireland, Scotland, Wales, etc, and no centralized government. I also have issues with nationalism since I think it is the reason we keep having wars. The European Union was in part created by France and Germany to stop the Wars...it happened right after WWII. France and Germany and Italy and Spain finally got tired of going to war with each other all the time.
(Can't say I blame them...because seriously 98% of European History is warfare.)