Reply #117: Only if the government actually is an instrument of self-governance

[rman]

...of the people. Which is what it is supposed to be (post-Renaissance concept of democracy - which is the foundation of the US constitution). But which is usually isn't.

It is entirely possible to have a "government" that essentially a front for rule by the business elites. It can be overtly totalitarian (ie Stalin) or it can be an exercise in advanced propaganda (the West, with the current US govt as the strongest manifestation yet).

All i'm saying is, a government owning corporations is no guarantee for public control over those corporations. Just look at the USSR under Stalin, where the government did own corporations (same with Mussolini and Hitler). Trotsky had reason to denounce what he called Stalins "capitalism" - the ruling elites got richer under Stalin, while the people were starving to death.