Reply #29: These are the people that give the free market a bad name [View All]

[Cats Against Frist]

I was just having this discussion with my boyfriend this morning -- about how every law seems not to have to be held to the standard of "life, liberty and property," but to "what's good for the corporations."

Take environmental laws, for instance. According to classical liberalism, I would think that the right to clean air and clean water would be a "inalienable right" -- since people don't "own" the major water sources, nor do they "own" the air -- and it's something of "community property." But "environmental laws" are constantly being manipulated in FAVOR of the polluters.

These things don't fulfill the tenets of classical liberalism, my friends. This is a completely different philosophy, that uses government engineering in the SAME WAY, that "just plain liberals" are accused of using the government to re-distribute wealth.

The GOP hides behind this, I think, to a HUGE extent -- their most bare-knuckled "liberty" supporters, who think that because the Assault Weapons Ban is repealed means they're getting "small government" with the GOP.

It's a lie. And neo-liberalism is something of another word for "fascism." If the government is consistently making laws in favor of corporations, particularly when the politicians themselves are CEOs or benefit from the corporations, OR are bribed by lobbyists OR are beholden to campaign contributors -- this is PATENTLY NOT the free market, and the GOP is lying when they say this.

It seems to me that for the "free market" to be free that it should not be intertwined with government, and subjected to the laws that protect peoples' individual property and freedom rights. What this kind of thing does is make corporations more free than the rest of us, as per the definition, above. That runs in DIRECT OPPOSITION to the tenets of classical liberalism. It really makes me want to puke.