Hacker News Reader

Need for defense, education, water, fire fighting/regulations, sewer, trash/recycling pickup, and once in a while workers rights and anti-trust. (Depending on ones definition of 'solved'.)

View on HN

All of those sit on the shoulders of private business and enterprise. Government (and bureaucracy generally) only prevents them from efficiently executing on what the market demands of them.

Before workers rights, regulation, and public education the industrialized world was much more privatized and also quite bleak.

Private industry has its place. Doesn't mean it's a good idea to outsource governance to them in all but name.

Yes thank goodness those monopolies are gone and our cities are all clean and safe from fires and our sewage and road infrastructure is in top condition

I'd agree those needs haven't been solved permanently. Hence the need for vigilance and a strong government that's controlled by the people, not the rich or high born.

These discussions are exasperating for me because I always go where? Where in this world is this strong government that's controlled by the average joe and not by the rich or high born. It seems like some enlightenment era utopian fantasy that people haven't grown out of

It's an ideal to strive for. Rarely reached. Yet things get better the closer we are to it, and worse the farther away.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com