[diskcat]

>One potential solution is directly government funded news

Where does the government get its money to fund news? Either from the local population which is enforced support for an economically non-viable business or it can get money from other people who have no interest in the local news of another place far away.

If good local news is not profitable, then that means there is not enough interest to justify the cost of making good local news. This is not a failure of the free market to provide a critical public good. The free market is working exactly as intended, and what YOU call 'critical' public good, isn't really that critical, according to people who would actually consume said good.

And then you want the government to enforce your personal idea of what is 'critical' by forcing people to buy things they don't want.

[croon]

Giving money to retirees, giving medical care to poor people, having an FDA controlling what companies are able to sell that might harm the public (long or short term), and other regulatory organs are not economically viable either. Should we abolish those?

"Free market" might be a fun catchphrase, but everything judged through one lens is extremely narrowminded.

[MichaelBurge]

My opinions: Abolish social security, abolish medicare, keep the FDA but allow unapproved treatments clearly marked as such(possibly require signing a document confirming they know it's unapproved, or require them to file some paperwork with the local government in order to allow unapproved treatments). Of course, you'll never actually get elected advocating the first two, since the elderly have a stranglehold on politicians.

A more electable opinion: Allow people to invest their government-mandated retirement accounts however they want: SS is required to be invested in treasury bonds, which are not what I would invest in.

We don't need the government propping up the news companies, either. Professionals can stay informed to issues relevant to their work by subscribing to a trade magazine. Local communities often congregate at a church or similar(abolish tax exemption for churches, while we're at it), and that's as good a place as any to talk politics or gossip about celebrities.

For purely factual local community items requiring action(new sidewalk repair ordinance requires 30% of houses to replace their sidewalk trees, there's an upcoming mayoral election, a real estate investor just bought the last empty lot in the city and is building a huge apartment complex, etc.) can be reported by the government through the city or county websites, or by mailing notices to everyone.

I also wouldn't mind a government-operated television channel, intended for government matters(the president making his state-of-the-union speech, results of elections, warnings about emergencies, a brief summary of recent Supreme Court rulings as they happen, etc.).

[dredmorbius]

If all Internet advertising were paid just by the billion richest people of the world (essentially: the OECD nations, mostly the US, Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, NZ), the cost would net out to $20 per $30k of income (about the per-capita median).

If you wanted to cover all advertising, it'd be $100 per $30k. Or an 0.3% tax rate.

And no more advertising or advertising-supported crap.