Income Inequality and Left Wing Hypocricy

[Neo-Scholastic]

Well, what your quote fails to realize is that money equals power.  I've always found it odd that people will fight against the consolidation of power by the government while simultaneously having no problem handing it over to the business elite....I think thee best we can hope for is checks and balances that keep government and the 1% in check, but I'm not really certain how to go about that precisely.  The thing I do know is that we should not stick our heads in the sand and say, "OMG, government is bad, but what's the worst that could happen in a plutocracy."

Your reply has a great deal of merit. Both wealth and political power wield influence. (The essay also includes prestige) I am not sure those are directly convertible. The ideal, it would seem is to minimize the ability to translate one into the other. I see two ways for business and governments to interact. The first is with regulations that impartially promote (like public infrastructure) or restrict the scope and reach of businesses (like anti-trust regulations and general limits use of public goods like riverways). The second could also include regulations that target the practices and/or viability of specific industries (tariffs, tax breaks, barriers to entry, etc.). The second are ripe for corruption since the provide incentives to businesses to curry favor with politicians who will pass laws that financially benefit themselves and their cronies.

So I do not think there is an ideal size of government, in terms of public investment or protections, but rather limiting the types of regulation with which the state can engage. Likewise, I do not think businesses should have free reign to engage in zero-sum practices that unfairly tilt markets in their direction.