Bureaucracy and Regulation

There's a new kind of capitalism on the scene: "surveillance capitalism." It's drawn attention from across the political spectrum, but Left, Right, and center offer very different solutions to similar concerns. 

How much licensing requirements are designed to “protect” the health of the public, and how much to restrict competition, may be gauged from the fact that giving medical advice free without a license is rarely a legal offense. Only the sale of medical advice requires a license.

Since outright grants of monopoly or quasi-monopoly would usually be considered baldly injurious to the public, governments have discovered a variety of methods of granting such privileges indirectly, as well as a variety of arguments to justify these measures.

School children learn that there are three branches of government. In actual practice, there is a fourth branch, the permanent bureaucracy which includes legions of civilian and military agents, officers, and administrators committed to protecting their own interests.