Wall Street

[leo9]

Forgive me, everyone, please. I was under the misapprehension that the ability to make vast fortunes if you were skillful, or lucky, or able to use your own situation to your advantage, was what the free-enterprise culture was all about.

It was supposed to be about doing all of the above honestly and without legalised fraud. Which is what the selling of toxic securities always was, though no politician dares to say so because they legalised it.

Take away all the controls and regulations, and the vast fortunes are made by criminals. That's why "small government" never works for long (only for as long as it takes for the honest businessmen to be pushed aside), but has a powerful and well funded lobby.

[Ragoczy]

Take away all the controls and regulations, and the vast fortunes are made by criminals. That's why "small government" never works for long (only for as long as it takes for the honest businessmen to be pushed aside), but has a powerful and well funded lobby.

That isn't what I or anyone I know means by "small government". Government's proper role is to protect the individual.

By "small government", what's typically meant is keeping government programs small and ensuring people have the opportunity to be self-reliant rather than reliant on government.