Interesting take!

I'm not sure how well recieved it will be here on Lemmy, but it's well reasoned and explained with clear references.

Even if others don't agree with you, you've certainly earned respect for so cleanly writing out how you're looking at this and why.

Personally, I think your answer aligns itself well with the classic solutions to these problems.

Machiavelli wrote extensively about what you're saying in "The Prince" and came to a similar solution that institutions and any position of power over them needs to be completely transparent and open to critique. He pushed for heavy regulation becuase it's the literal singular mechanism that pushes institutions towards benefiting the public instead of benefiting themselves.

The most interesting takeaway from reading The Prince in a modern context is how deregulation killed every system of governance we've tried going all the way back to ancient Rome.

Nero fiddled as Rome burned because Roman government was deregulated to the point an idiot could hold power over them.

USSR couldn't keep communism regulated, so those that were stealing and breaking the system used their illegally gained resources to deconstruct the communist regime in its entirety.

Now, in the US we're watching as both of these happen at the same time. A social system deregulated to the point several reality TV stars can hold the highest military and government positions while bailing out our Oligarchs so much they've evolved from "too big to fail" into "too big to stop."

Tansparency and regulation are a necessity in any functioning society to prevent the minority of horrible humans among us from becoming subjugators.