Ron Paul: Corporatism - not free markets

People don't know how to be citizens anymore. All they want to do is CONSUME.

That kind of attitude is all you needed for power to centralize. Get rid of statism & big gov't, okay :) You're STILL dealing with a flock of sheep who do nothing beg & beg for CONVENIENCE.

The marketplace GLADLY accommodates them.

Businesses will quickly conglomerate into "The Umbrella Corporation", Totalitarian & Authoritarian by nature. Defined by the people who run it & people with BUSINESS CONNECTIONS.

BnL

Screw this fraudulent, inefficient system

The most important proposition is adherence to a constitution that is well thought out and dedicated toward individual rights. We have that in the USA but do not adhere.

Free markets is key here. Corporatism is not included; as it is unfair benifits to a certain group, namely the corporations but not small businesses.

To have a livable society, you need government involvement and social safetynets. Beyond that, you can have all the free markets you want.

And I would completely agree with you in your opposition to corporatism - however you need government to rein in corporate power. Campaign finance reform to prevent politicians being bought outright. Regulation against monopoly formation. Regulation to ensure consumer protection.

Beyond that, you can have all the free markets you want. :)

"A free market means an absence of privatized power"

Thank you for saying that! People don't realize that a fraction of the population on the planet enforce their claim of PRIVATE ownership over most of the natural resources we need to live. That's privatized power. I'm not a communist but I'm just trying to show you that when A HANDFUL of enterprises control energy, land/housing, agriculture, textiles, etc. etc. you have privatized power. Private ownership =IS= privatized power.

You didn't get me. What I am saying is, free-markets doesn't discriminate or intimadate what positions are you in. "Privatized power" or a wealth power exists in a system of corporatist, fascism, communism, socialism, and so on. Because there is that direct/indirect ways of managing the economy or wealth power through particular hands but not spread out to the masses or individual. When there is free-enterprises, people would just go in and compete even there is a lack of free-market system!

@Aspetta17

privatized power is what you want, not what you dont want.

planned economy, corporate capitalism = Private gain public loss. look at the bank bailouts, and stimulus.
Public property does not mean ownership of the public, rather it is private property of those with political connections. such as government is defined by the people who run it, when power is given to them, the effect is that "public ownership" equals "government ownership" which "the people" are not part.

"Government is defined by the people who run it" -- But those people have to ASK FOR OUR PERMISSION to run it every two and four years. Nobody has that kind of power over bankers and business executives.

There's nothing EMPOWERING about being a consumer. Yet this is exactly the attitude that pervades civic life today. People approach the political landscape as though it were a vending machine -- totally content with the choices being offered to them (Pepsi vs. Coke/Dems vs. Reps).

There's no such thing as "free social-behavior", honey. Pro-social behavior is a term used in clinical psychology; it is "caring about the welfare and rights of others, feeling concern and empathy for them, and acting In a way that benefits others"

Pro-social behavior is a survival trait! It is the REASON civilization works!

"Rats and roaches live in competition under the laws of supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to live by the laws of justice and mercy"- Wendell Berry