Holding Big Business accountable to Democracy

[SHRED]

Let's take a few sectors:

Banking
Energy
Transportation
Healthcare
Weapons design and production



Couldn't a case be made that the current private control of these sectors and their "for profit" motivation harms "we the people"?
When we speak of "Nationalization" or "Socialism" I think it is fair to point out the benefits of these, and other major sectors of our society, being in direct control of our government places them accountable to the Democratic process. If we don't like how they are being run then we vote out those running them.

Sure, there is a place for many businesses and "mom & pop" startups under the capitalist/private system but MAJOR sectors that affect us all dramatically I question the wisdom of having these in private hands accountable to no one and influencing our government in terrible ways.

---

[jwirr]

1. In order to get from here to there I would guess that things are going

to have to get a lot worse. Socialism - you know!

[Ozymanithrax]

2. Andy Jackson did make a mistake when he destroyed the

2nd national bank... And the Federal Reserve Act should have created a bank controlled directly by the government. National Banks are necessary to promote some stability in currency. They should not be owned by anything but the citizens.

But our flirtation with nationalizing the Railroads was a short one. Wilson turned them back over the their civilian owners, after nationalizing the railroad and standardizing the system.

Even FDR's socialist style programs were instituted to save what passed for free market capitalism from people who were close to pulling it apart.

Short of rewriting the Constitution, I don't think we will see any thing like nationalizing other entities. There has been a concentrated effort to demonize socialism for 150 years. The misery index will have to get a lot worse to change that. The best we can hope for is regulation that limits their excesses.