Since about the mid 1970s deregulation has been consistent. This empowers corporations to sort of do whatever they want so long as the free market justifies their behaviour. The point of view that regulation is a bad thing, and de-regulation is a good thing, has become increasingly popular, even being taught in schools.
In a publicly traded company it's practically illegal not to seek out any unfair or immoral advantage that may increase your share value. Being moral is not often in the best interest of your investors, at least not in the short term.
If you accept this as truth, then it kind of makes sense that large corporations lobby various governments to pass bills that directly or indirectly increase their share value regardless of the consequences. This is so profitable that over time this leads to massive deregulation and government corruption as companies try anything and everything to influence government leaders (or put their own people in these influencial positions). It's pretty blatent and not uncommon for a regulator later taking a job with a large corporation they were in charge of overseeing. In some fields it's an accepted and commonly known career path.
So I wouldn't say it's us against them or anything crazy. It just so happens that the interests of most corporations do not align with society in general's long term interests.
The problem with regulation is that it's subject to corruption than can produce fairly large consequences for society. It usually takes a while before a government body has been properly infiltrated (say 15 years or so?).
The problem with deregulation is it assumes corporation interests are often aligned with societies interests. That's simply not true the majority of the time.
Comments
Since about the mid 1970s deregulation has been consistent. This empowers corporations to sort of do whatever they want so long as the free market justifies their behaviour. The point of view that regulation is a bad thing, and de-regulation is a good thing, has become increasingly popular, even being taught in schools.
In a publicly traded company it's practically illegal not to seek out any unfair or immoral advantage that may increase your share value. Being moral is not often in the best interest of your investors, at least not in the short term.
If you accept this as truth, then it kind of makes sense that large corporations lobby various governments to pass bills that directly or indirectly increase their share value regardless of the consequences. This is so profitable that over time this leads to massive deregulation and government corruption as companies try anything and everything to influence government leaders (or put their own people in these influencial positions). It's pretty blatent and not uncommon for a regulator later taking a job with a large corporation they were in charge of overseeing. In some fields it's an accepted and commonly known career path.
So I wouldn't say it's us against them or anything crazy. It just so happens that the interests of most corporations do not align with society in general's long term interests.
The problem with regulation is that it's subject to corruption than can produce fairly large consequences for society. It usually takes a while before a government body has been properly infiltrated (say 15 years or so?).
The problem with deregulation is it assumes corporation interests are often aligned with societies interests. That's simply not true the majority of the time.