Our progressive history has mutated from a desire to protect the public from big business to such a highly regulated state that it serves to protect big business at the expense of new job creation (competitors). This is especially true in the financial sector where we need the accountability of competition more than ever.

The original idea of progressives (distinct from liberal values) was twofold. To protect the public from the big business interests of the robber baron age and to bring the same efficiency to government that business brought to their organizations. This required an elite to run the government because common voters were deemed incapable of understanding the needs and functioning of the modern state. At the same time that the common man was to be protected be was not to be trusted to make critical decisions in his life. This incongruity has long plagued the movement, especially now that the commercial environment is changing so rapidly.

The modern progressive movement still lives in the era of the robber barons and the civil rights era of the sixties. The society has largely moved on. The threats perceived by the large enterprises of the 19th century do not exist in the world of iPhones, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Uber. The social impact of this age is just beginning to be recognized.

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