11-06-2017, 01:49 PM
(11-03-2017, 10:23 PM)Dill Wrote: ...since I don't think dictating margins is really effectively controlling a business still privately owned and reaping, for the most part, immense private profit.
Price controls are HORRIBLE (which is basically what you're arguing when you talk about dictating margins), far worse than excessive regulation. Investors require a return on their capital - you can't just look at the dollars and say a company is making too much money. People rail about insurance companies. Those are GIANT companies with tens, hundreds of billions in revenues and tiny margins @3% (half of which comes from investment gains on reserves).
A strong economy is one where the govt is ensuring fair play/competition and NOT putting it's thumb on the scale to pick winners and losers.
If you want to kill innovation and growth at my business, then go ahead and dictate what my margins should be. You may not be making day-to-day decisions at my business, but excessive regulations and price controls absolutely IS interfering with those decisions. That IS modern socialism - you're putting your thumb on the scale to effect outcomes just the same as if you were calling those shots yourself.
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