[tomatotomato37]

What they mean by subsidies are externalities they government doesn't tax, not active subsidies. The problem with that thinking is that people aren't remotely in agreement of what the dollar cost of those externalities actually are, so painting them as straight subsidies that can simply be cut off is dishonest.

In addition, the use of untaxed externalities in arguments like this implies they aren't asking to take the government's thumb off, they are asking for the government to use more thumb, except against the companies they don't like.

[acollins1331]

There's a difference between putting your thumb on companies, and an entire sector. Knee jerk hate for industry wide regulation makes no sense, it's precisely the job of the government to set the standards of operation for a particular market.

[tomatotomato37]

I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying in practice good regulation requires serious thought in quantity of regulation, the role of state vs federal, and the prevention of regulatory capture by said economic sector. Rushing through these things with no more thought put into it than lofty ideals is how you end up with dysfunctional bureaucracys that cause voters to swing towards politicans promising to indiscriminately tear the whole thing down.

It annoys me how little thought is put into making sure any of these new systems will work in a democratic system where the people negativity affected have a vote too.