[spruciefic399]

Unfortunately, I think you're right. From my perspective, this is exactly the sort of government-sanctioned monopoly / rent-seeking that's causing so much income inequality and economic pathology. The government should be encouraging competition, not destroying it.

I think the idea of intellectual property per se is fundamentally flawed, but I can see patents as incentives. This just shifts too much power to trolls and undeserving patents.

[oneplane]

I think the government should be there to provide a general interface to general policy, perhaps create, check, enforce it, and ensure some sort of level playing field so people that miss the genetic lottery aren't screwed by default.

(basically, just making sure people can work together if they want to, but without having the will of the strongest/most powerful be the law)

If you undermine any of that by making bad rules or doing bad governance, you are screwing the whole country and all the people in it.