Quote: That's true, but, sadly, many people have been taught that more government involvement into things equals socialism which equals Russia/USSR/bad stuff that we don't want. Hence the strong reactions of people when it comes to regulation.
Old Russia = communism, not the same as socialism.
from Wikipedia: In political and social sciences, communism is the philosophical, social, political and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the communist society, which is a socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money and the state.
From Wikipedia: Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownership and democratic control of the means of production.
QUITE different.
Also:
From Wikipedia: Capitalism is an economic system and an ideology based on private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit.
Regulation is just a mechanism to ensure some form of democratic control on these means of production, because there is very little in pure capitalism to do that except the law (ethics sure as hell don't come into this as has been shown time and time again). On its own the pure market economy really doesn't care about ecology, individual rights, poverty, ethics, etc... unless it makes economic sense and brings in cash.
In order to make a company that does 'the right thing' a better survivor (i.e. ensure doing the right thing makes economic sense) in a pure market driven economy several ground rules must be fullfilled:
- the customer must have a choice (no monopolies), and be able to afford it (you can hardly speak of choice if most people are poor and can only afford the cheapest products).
- the customer must be educated, well informed and care enough to do 'the right thing' himself and adapt his behavior.
- others ...
Now what happens if information is also subject to those market forces, or education?
What happens if access to information becomes selective? Or if all information is in the hands of very few people? Who decides what we do and don't get to see or hear?
Is it not better to see access to education, information, food, water, ... as a fundamental basic right?
This is what is happening now: the free right to access information has been revoked and placed in the hands of a handful of large companies, and they can selectively turn on or off this access to all or parts of the corpus of information (this has nothing to do with the quality, content, veracity or value of this information).
Booo ...
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