In fact, I would generalize more than the article’s thesis: “large organizations considered harmful”.
Any large organization, be it a company or a government or even an NGO, will inevitably lose efficiency as it grows larger, and will lose focus on its original purpose in favor of the purposes of the people with decision making power in the organization.
I find it interesting that people on the left in general tend to believe the worst of corporations and have more confidence in government, and people on the right have the reverse views in general.
In my opinion, both have some potential for tyranny; it’s just a little easier (not much) to deal with recalcitrant corporations, and sometimes you have a choice of corporations to interact with.
> I find it interesting that people on the left in general tend to believe the worst of corporations and have more confidence in government, and people on the right have the reverse views in general.
This is because they're competing coalitions. If you want to build a garbage F-35 for a trillion dollars*, the trillion dollars will come mostly from corporations and capitalists. If you want increased media consolidation and to keep your Hollywood movie studio cartel protected from competition by upstarts, you want regulatory capture and a lot of international treaties to launder your draconian copyright laws through, i.e. less government antitrust enforcement and less government autonomy.
*This is, in actual fact, an underestimate. Somehow.
Both of those things are bad, but the people who want them both want to control the government in order to institute them. The beneficiaries of having the government not do either of those bad things would be the public at large. They're diffuse and unable to effectively organize, so there is no political party representing them.
And notice that I just provided an example of "the right" wanting wasteful central government spending and "the left" acting in the interests of multi-billion dollar corporations. Because they're not principled ideologies, they're heterogeneous opposing political coalitions.
The difference in formula I find interesting. I think either having everyone vote however uninformed or just have a tiny group of stake holders are equally extreme solutions.
I can dream right? Imagine this: Rather than a basic income or a salary in fiat issue some kind of shares to the employees/citizens. You need 100 to get a full vote (50 for half etc) and you get dividend for each share.
If the value of the share declines (as we keep issuing new ones) the amount issued and the amount needed for a full vote are gradually increased and the dividend decreases.
Then, rather than a single vote for someone you also get a single vote against someone so that popularity alone doesn't win elections.
Have a very simple certificate that one must obtain in order to vote that teaches the absolute bare minimum about each candidate.
Finally, lets no do single elections but allow people to change their vote whenever they like with a higher amount of votes required for getting in than for getting out.
In fact, I would generalize more than the article’s thesis: “large organizations considered harmful”.
Any large organization, be it a company or a government or even an NGO, will inevitably lose efficiency as it grows larger, and will lose focus on its original purpose in favor of the purposes of the people with decision making power in the organization.
I find it interesting that people on the left in general tend to believe the worst of corporations and have more confidence in government, and people on the right have the reverse views in general.
In my opinion, both have some potential for tyranny; it’s just a little easier (not much) to deal with recalcitrant corporations, and sometimes you have a choice of corporations to interact with.