{"id":245323,"date":"2023-07-20T13:51:41","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T12:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/?post_type=snippet&p=245323"},"modified":"2023-07-20T13:55:43","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T12:55:43","slug":"a-sorry-state-of-affairs","status":"publish","type":"snippet","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/snippet\/a-sorry-state-of-affairs\/","title":{"rendered":"A sorry state of affairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why did America’s Food and Drug Administration approve an expensive antibiotic<\/a> that was no better than a cheap generic? Because the FDA is an example of ‘state capture’ by commercial companies.<\/p>\n

This is a problem that concerns conservatives<\/a> as well as left-wing ‘radicals’ who still believe they can fix capitalism by undoing ‘state capture’ and decoupling profit from human welfare<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But the state was always ‘captured’, in the sense that it was created and paid for by the rich to mediate their business affairs. It’s not there for your benefit. A 2015 study<\/a> concluded that ‘economic elites and organized interest groups play a substantial part in affecting public policy, but the general public has little or no independent influence.’<\/p>\n

If you’re under the impression that you pay for the state through your taxes, you might like to read this<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-245323","snippet","type-snippet","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/snippet\/245323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/snippet"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/snippet"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}