General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Wow... the government keeps records of all doctors' visits for 130 million Americans [View all]snot
(10,540 posts)Last edited Fri Jun 28, 2013, 02:13 PM - Edit history (1)
"Has this revelation made anybody rethink support for single payer healthcare? Gun registration? Product safety regulation?"
Theoretically and in practice, the government can be more directly answerable to the people than corporations.
To carry out large infrastructure projects or essential services for large populations, a decent-sized organization is needed.
So far, the only such organizations we've invented are, more or less, governments, religious organizations, corporations, and user-owned organizations such as unions and cooperatives.
Of those alternatives, user-owned organizations seem least vulnerable to hijacking by sociopaths and governments more vulnerable but still better than corporations or, i.m.h.o., religions.
The problem with letting government control healthcare or gun registration NOW is that we've allowed our government to become largely owned the 1%. HOWEVER, since we retain at least a shred of control over our government, while we have NO meaningful control over corporations and while it does not appear feasible to replace most government or other kinds of orgs with user-owned orgs in the foreseeable future, it appears we are best off trying to keep infrastructure and essential services in the hands of government while continuing efforts to wrest control of government back from the 1%.