[SteveA]

What you're saying sounds like the common perspective and I realize there's been a long term growing objection to greater government influences on private spheres but I believe that 1) it's been 1 step forwand and 2 steps back on many issues and that 2) many of things that appear to be a reduction in goverment control are truly greater control but simply passed on to their "private" buddies. It sounds great but it's a misrepresentation of what' happening.

Here's the way I see it working.

Private Guy A earns $50,000/year.
Private Guy B earns $50,000/year.

Private Guy B has Government Buddy raise taxes and regulations targetted at Private Guy A though it hits B some also. So we have:

Private Guy A after taxes and regulatory/compliance costs earns $25,000/year.
Private Guy B after these earns $40,000/year.
Government Buddy pockets some of this (not all the difference as overall the system tends to be inefficient) so he gets $20,000

Private Guy A eventually complains and so Government Buddy splits the take with Private Guy B in the name of "privatization" (though it's not really privatization, as the money was still stolen in a decidely non-private fashion) and we have this:

Private Guy A ends up with $25,000/year.
Private Guy B still ends up with $50,000/year.
Government Buddy pockets the $10,000/year.

(If we had an utopian world, they should all be able to earn $50,000 each but I'm not ignorant that we don't live in that world but simply know we could do a lot better ... especially if you compound this effect over time so every the difference of 2% a year better growth can become a huge difference 40 years later ... 2% compounded over 40 years is 121%, so 40 years of good growth could more than double the availability of things for people compared to slower growth. Social programs are largely unnecessary when the economy is doing well)

So in the end Government Buddy can say he's only taken $10,000 and even helped support "privatization" in the process and Private Guy A is still wondering why he can't get ahead. Private Guy B is the equivalent of any many government favored or subsidized industries or even specific companies that get a leg up.