A Service, Desperately Needed

(NOTE: Based on time elapsed since the posting of this entry, the BS-o-meter calculates this is 16.884% likely to be something that Ferrett now regrets.)

Conservatives often talk about the Free Market as though it was a panacea that will create a utopia – a dash of competition’ll clear that right up!  And you talk to them, and they talk about how awful the gummint is, and how wonderful business is.  They’re like a teenager dating for the first time, so in love with the idea that they can’t see the reality.
Say what you will, but the free market left unblinkered inevitably runs towards lying to consumers and screwing over people as much as they can get away with.  I know you conservatives don’t like to hear that, but the free market is wonderfully efficient at both creating innovation when the companies are young, and in stifling competition when they’re old and powerful and don’t want to deal with competition.  Big companies lie, they waste money on projects, they’re often so caught up in cutting corners that they wind up being more inefficient and harmful than the government ever could be.
Despite the current line of thought, companies are frequently both bungling and harmful to their consumers.  So what I’d like would be a mailing list you could sign up for (or, you know, sign other people up for) that emails conservatives a regular but brief summary of news tidbits to feed them real-world examples of corporations are often wasteful of their money, harmful to consumers, and making decisions that destroy the people around them.
G’wan, liberals, cheer.  Because this service is for you.  No, literally, because there’s the other side of the coin:
Say what you will, but the government left unblinkered inevitably runs towards overusage of public funding, eddies that do nothing and go nowhere except for lining the wrong pockets, and being purchased by old and powerful companies that use them to screw over competition.  So what I’d like would be a mailing list you could sign up for (or, you know, sign other people up for) that emails liberals a regular summary of news tidbits that show how governments often abuse their regulations and laws to screw over people with perfectly reasonable needs.
Not just “The cops busted this lady for growing pot in her windowsill.”  Like, “This new regulation is putting good people out of house and home.”  “This new law is causing these folks direct misery for no reason.”  Because liberals need a reminder that the government, though also a valid tool, is often a blunt instrument that does a lot of damage.
Call me crazy.  I think Big Business and Government need each other fiercely – Big Business is so “efficient” at finding ways of profit that it’ll chop up your floorboards to sell as toothpicks, and Government is so slow and lumbering that it’ll just keep bribing its constituents with free money until it goes broke.  You need Big Business to keep the country moving, and Government to rein in Big Business so it doesn’t use up everything in a mad rush towards short-term profits.
Some days, that makes me feel crazy, thinking both methods have significant downsides.  I’d just like to remind everyone of that.

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