On of the great myths of ‘the economy’ is that it operates already *without* massive government…

On of the great myths of ‘the economy’ is that it operates already *without* massive government ‘intervention’. Governments create the entire framework of economic activity, including the existence of companies. /1 https://t.co/GvBKOnIYha https://t.co/J9RG9ExigB

Economic transactions only happen at all because of VAST numbers of regulations that standardise trading and activity, making economic activity possible. That’s without even pointing out the massive government subsidy for existing industries like fossil fuels and agriculture. /2

When I say there is no such thing as ‘the economy’, this is what I mean. The entire economic transactions of any country are really nested hierarchies of vertically integrated activity, with governments at the top of the nested hierarchy. /3

It’s a non-debate. It’s not ‘picking winners’ or ‘letting the free market decide’. There is no free market, the whole thing is a political illusion, made up in reality of regulation and legislation and standards. /4

This is why economic superpowers are driven by massive government activity (not intervention, they create the ‘market’ too), of planning and investment. The free market fantasy detour Western nations took since the late-1970s was an illusion sustained by one thing only. /5

The fact that it got China to do all the building of stuff it uses, for it. That’s what allowed us to think we were living lives of free market consumer choice. All made possible by astronomical levels of government planning and investment, in China. /6

We outsourced our government economic planning and investment, to them. So we could play the team sports of electoral politics, pretending ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ were actually arguing over the relative role of the State. But the State was still driving everything. /7

It was just offshore, doing all of that economic work for us, in China. /end