this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2025
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Would it be accurate to say there is no such thing as small government under capitalism, or is that silly? (hexbear.net)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by Dort_Owl@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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From what I can gather, when capitalist democracies cut government departments, they just end up outsourced to private companies who reap whatever infrastructure was there and replace it with their own, cheap and barely functioning version for profit.

So basically the government service is still there, it's just privatised and crappier.

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[–] PKMKII@hexbear.net 3 points 3 weeks ago

A lot of the time, when a service gets "privatized" or moved out of direct government control, it doesn't actually become independent. It still runs on state funding, follows government-mandated rules, and relies on public contracts or guarantees. The state might not be running it day to day, but it's still paying for it, backing it, and ultimately responsible if things go wrong.

It’s a truism that in public-private partnerships, the private end will eventually be bailed out by the public end. Profits are guaranteed for the public end, but surprise surprise the necessary functions of the state aren’t profitable. So the public end either takes over and buys out the private end, or provides a minimum profit to the private end.