Thread: Life in our countries - "good, bad and ugly"...

Originally Posted by Deborski

That, Eric, is the question that has plagued humanity since the dawn of time. Who regulates the regulators? Too many of them are bought and paid for. Big Pharma practically owns the FDA and write it own regulations as it is. Same goes for every agency. They have proven, time and time again, that they can be bought.

I think the answer is that the system is flawed just as every system humans have ever designed has been flawed. The circumstances vary, but all of them end the same way: Corruption as a direct result of human greed for money or power. Somehow, we humans always manage to screw it up.

Until we evolve enough to design a system in which corruption is not possible, we will continue to have problems like this.

But allowing businesses to run free is not a solution either. They do not self-regulate and they have shown repeatedly that rather than do the right thing, they will rip us off, poison us, get us addicted to harmful substances, overwork us, destroy our environment, etc, etc, etc. Regulations can and do work, until the inevitable time when someone pays someone off.

There needs to be a system in place which makes bribes of public officials and lawmakers impossible. And by bribes, I am not referring to the illegal kind. I'm referring to the kind that go on all the time and are perfectly legal within the framework of the system. Massive corporate lobbyists who are able to donate obscene volumes of funds to a congressman's Super-PAC, for example, in exchange for assurances that he will act in their favor rather than in the interest of the public. There are too many ways in which our legislators can be bought by those who have the money. That needs to end. Once the profit is gone, they can get back to doing what they were elected to do - represent us.

Politicians point the finger at the poor and disenfranchised and get the small-minded "patriots" all riled up against so-called "freeloaders" like the elderly, the unemployed, the sick and the impoverished while ignoring the biggest freeloader of them all - America's 1% and the corporations they run.

I think the best regulator ever is the law. As long as big businesses don't mess with the law and human freedoms (also prescribed in the law), they should be left alone. And the law, among all the other things, has to make sure all businesses are run in the same environment with no particular advantage for any of them. That's the only type of interaction between the government and businesses - through reasonable laws that help create healthy business environment.

The type of bribes, the legal one that you mentioned is actually very hard to track and prove it's actually a bribe. I agree that it could result in undesirable consequences, but you cannot forbid making donations, and you cannot tell a particular senator whose side to take even though s/he represents you. So, this is an open question...

Originally Posted by Eric C.

I think the best regulator ever is the law. As long as big businesses don't mess with the law and human freedoms (also prescribed in the law), they should be left alone. And the law, among all the other things, has to make sure all businesses are run in the same environment with no particular advantage for any of them. That's the only type of interaction between the government and businesses - through reasonable laws that help create healthy business environment.

The type of bribes, the legal one that you mentioned is actually very hard to track and prove it's actually a bribe. I agree that it could result in undesirable consequences, but you cannot forbid making donations, and you cannot tell a particular senator whose side to take even though s/he represents you. So, this is an open question...

Laws are only effective when they are enforced. Wall Street, big oil, big pharma and military contractors have demonstrated time and again that they can circumnavigate the law with ease. As for proving the above are bribes, it's quite easy actually. But no one is going to take on the power brokers. The system has been rigged to benefit the powerful ones, not the little guy.