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Personal freedom includes not being manipulated by commercial interests.




Sure, but all successful capitalist economies revolve around supporting commercial interests which prop up the tax revenue which then hold up the welfare state and public infrastructure, QoL and freedoms we enjoy.

THe big challenge is separating the good from the bad commercial interests. It's not a challenge because differentiating the good from the harmful is difficult, but because bad actor industries also make A LOT of money that buys a lot of political power and also employ a lot of people, so removing them from economy would have negative economic and political consequences.

Basically it's like a dead man's switch in a mutually assured destruction weapon.


Just because they employ a lot of people does not mean that removing them from economy would have negative economic consequences.

Killing the tobacco industry for example would have incredibly positive economic consequences, despite the job loss.


>Killing the tobacco industry for example would have incredibly positive economic consequences, despite the job loss.

Yeah but both tobacco industry employees and smokers vote. If they make up a large enough voter base, then this is political suicide in any democracy.

Hence how it took until 2019 to ban indoor smoking in my EU country, even though it was known for a long time it's a public health issue.


Personal freedom only works when someone is educated enough to make their own choices imho.

Most people know being fat, smoking and so on are bad. Its mostly not an education issue. But an outlook on live issue.



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