Moths Attracted to the Means of Production

When it comes down to it, politicos have to insulate themselves between the buyer and seller in order to extract their parasitic living, so it's no surprise the modern conception of the state didn't cohere until the industrial age.

This is one of the reasons politicians don't like the internet. Suddenly, a huge chunk of the economy, a part formerly highly centralized, is now very decentralized. What's worse is that people exposed to this decentralization tend to advocate decentralization in other areas- even in agriculture, for I find a lot of small farmer info on the web by folks who've decided to go out and do it.

Now, if you can imagine various means of production for the products you use on your own land, in your own neighborhood, etc... you can also imagine the space in which the politician can insert himself gets smaller- in fact, it becomes ever more obvious he's a thief and not some sort of helper.

This is why we see some strange pro-corporate behavior among the governments. The instinct is to keep everything highly centralized for ease of taxation. There's also a pro-growth element- many politicians are smart enough to realize more transactions taxed at a lower cost would be preferable to the sort of taxes which either halt trade totally or encourage smuggling. Of course, both of these approaches, taken together as they always are in this compromised country, lead to economic disaster. A protected production system has a false price attached to it- reflecting the 'rent' from the protected status and not it's actual value to anybody. Pro-growth initiatives create bubbles just like the housing bubble- encouraged transactions are given a higher false price.

But now, the con just looks stupid and dangerous right from the beginning. People are beginning to remember the best way to know if an animal is fit to eat is to see it alive, and if we go from farmer, to butcher, to table it will be pretty obvious the various government officials involved are dead weight, or worse, potential E.Coli vectors.

Or maybe I just don't watch enough T.V. Perhaps that would restore my credulity.