I don’t really have any reason to think that Trump is a small government type. He’s a lower tax and lower regulation guy. But for practical reasons as the opposite hurt the economy. But I don’t hear the small government vision. Which is essentially that the founders had it right when they thought that mans inherent nature is to oppress his fellow man. Thus you have a government which is small: Or only as large as necessary. This is in contract to the left of course, which acts as if we are fundamentally good but something in our lives/upbringing messes that all up. And once we can stop messing that up all will be right.
For the reason that the left has a vision that I am against, I can totally understand Dr. Sowell’s reply. Because I don’t really hear Trump advocating for smaller government the way conservatives typically imagine it.
Trump has advocated for the reduction of federal government programs like Obamacare and Common core. He has wisely not taken the bait of entitlement reform, a loser for Reps who try to take the lead on this issue.
This is sort of like turning down a good meal because the cook only cooked it that way for "practical reasons" rather then writing a "philosophy of food" book.
If he does so he'll lose votes of people working for the government and their friends and relatives. Most of them see Hillary for what she is. Once he gets in he should go gangbusters on that; we'll see!
In principle, capitalism and free trade are the ideal model.
But given the crony capitalism that has infested the body politic over the past 40 years, we are in a terrible jam.
Entrepreneurs and corporations need to have skin in the game. If they lose in business or fail to deliver in their career, they need to pay the consequences. And in that way, the risks to the entire economic systems are greatly lowered.
We can no longer support total freedom in the business world because the large corporations will simply demand special favors and expect the government to save them if they fail because they are “too big to fail”.
Black Swan author, Nassim Taleb, tells the story from ancient Mesopotamia about the law that required the architect who designed a bridge must house his family underneath that bridge. It’s a fitting metaphor for corporate responsibility.
So I love free trade, but government must also step in and regulate to ensure that companies who are too big to fail are broken up or that shareholders take the burden of failure onto themselves — not onto We The People.