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Crony Capitalism
Topic Started: Nov 11 2011, 08:19 AM (367 Views)
Thumper
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One member here tends to blame many (if not all) of our nations ills on "Crony Capitalism" brought on by the dastardly liberals. What is Crony Capitalism and why is it a result of the Libs?
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Chris
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Thumper
Nov 11 2011, 08:19 AM
One member here tends to blame many (if not all) of our nations ills on "Crony Capitalism" brought on by the dastardly liberals. What is Crony Capitalism and why is it a result of the Libs?
No, it's also brought on by conservatives and independents as well.

What is it?

Two other definitions first, from Franz Oppenheimer, The State. New York: Free Life Editions, 1908 (1975), pp. 24-25: I propose in the following discussion to call one’s own labor, and the equivalent exchange of one’s own labor for the labor of others, the ‘economic means’ for the satisfaction of needs, while the unrequited appropriation of the labor of others will be called the ‘political means’. IOW, if you go out in the marketplace and compete and cooperate in the exchange goods and services with others, that is the economic means. If instead you appeal to or purchase political power from the state to get what you desire from others, that is the political means.

Use of the political means is, imo, crony capitalism.

It can be blatant in the form of bribery, it can be insidious in the form of special interest lobbying, it can be democratic in voting for politicians who earmark funds, it can be obvious in social and corporate welfare.

The Christmas Tree Tax is an example, where a special interest group benefits from government regulation and tax. Iraq Oil Policy last decade was another. The FDA Kills gives some more. No point blaming a particular politician, it's rampant.

OWS wants to blame the 1%, and in many cases they're right, halfway, because the 1% purchases its power from the state. The state is simply the organization of political means.

It's also called corporatism, which is similar to mercantilism back to feudal times.

Hope that helps.

Questions?
Edited by Chris, Nov 11 2011, 09:35 AM.
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Chris
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A Thumper bumper. :-)
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Thumper
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No questions. So it is nothing new and is unpreventable and likely in a democratic form of government? Thanks.
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tomdrobin
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I don't know if it belongs under the catagory of crony capitalism, but the biggest problem as I see it is the corruption of the political process by whoring for campaign contributions. Getting elected is such an expensive process that politicians are beholden to those who give them the money to get elected. Currently you have the Tea Party politicians vowing to block any effort to raise taxes. I wonder how much of that is ideological and how much it is if they raise taxes on the wealthy they will loose their support. And, on the other side of the political spectrum the democrats tread lightly on the unions as they are a major funding source. No doubt the problems we face today are the fault of both the lefties and the righties. With the left being responsible for the growing entitlements of the welfare state, and the right being responsible for cutting revenue with unrealistic tax cuts considering the obligations. And, failing to properly oversee and break up those "to big to fail" entities.
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Chris
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Thumper
Nov 11 2011, 11:41 PM
No questions. So it is nothing new and is unpreventable and likely in a democratic form of government? Thanks.
Likely and unpreventable in any type of government. The collusion of business and government was preceded by the collusion of religion and government.

Every now and then the people rebel.
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Chris
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tomdrobin
Nov 12 2011, 12:29 AM
I don't know if it belongs under the catagory of crony capitalism, but the biggest problem as I see it is the corruption of the political process by whoring for campaign contributions. Getting elected is such an expensive process that politicians are beholden to those who give them the money to get elected. Currently you have the Tea Party politicians vowing to block any effort to raise taxes. I wonder how much of that is ideological and how much it is if they raise taxes on the wealthy they will loose their support. And, on the other side of the political spectrum the democrats tread lightly on the unions as they are a major funding source. No doubt the problems we face today are the fault of both the lefties and the righties. With the left being responsible for the growing entitlements of the welfare state, and the right being responsible for cutting revenue with unrealistic tax cuts considering the obligations. And, failing to properly oversee and break up those "to big to fail" entities.
That is a good example of crony capitalism. Politicians trade favors in the form of regulations against competitors in exchange for power.

Blocking raising taxes reduces state power.
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Chris
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Here's a few more views on crony capitalism.

First, Barnes, who, iirc, coined the term big government conservative: Obama ♥ the Big Guys
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By his own account, President Obama is the champion and protector of the little guy.... Yet the winners in the nearly three years of Obama’s presidency are the big guys​—​big business, big labor, and big government. Corporate profits have reached record levels. The influence of the biggest labor unions has surged in Washington, where it matters most. The federal government has grown in size and reach....
One-sided, yes.

Now a libertarian: The High Price of Republican Hypocrisy
Quote:
 
Crony capitalism, big government boondoggles, and other GOP failures.... Take the recent Newsweek story on "The Tea Party Pork Binge." The only time GOP politicians stop criticizing government handouts, it seems, is to ask for them. Which happens a lot.

The story leads off with Virginia's Eric Cantor, who sought billions for high-speed rail in the Old Dominion while he was blasting a similar project in Nevada. (Cantor's office told the mag the House majority leader has since changed his mind.) It's the same with Fred Upton, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. He's currently investigating the Energy Department's sweetheart loan guarantees to Solyndra. Two years ago, though, he was seeking millions from the department for projects in his home state of Michigan.

Newsweek isn't the first to plow this ground. The watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste has detailed the more than $1 billion in earmarks sought by members of the so-called Tea Party caucus. South Carolina's Tim Scott sought $300 million for harbor dredging. Jon Runyan of New Jersey fought for federal beach-replenishment funds. The examples pile up to heights of ridiculous redundancy.

The Tea Party's proletariat is not pleased. "It's pretty disturbing," Judson Phillips, co-founder of Tea Party Nation, tells Newsweek....

One more: K Street's Super Committee Splurge
Quote:
 
The bipartisan debt panel to nowhere is exactly where K Street lobbyists want it to be: hopelessly deadlocked. A November 23 deadline for agreement on $1.2 trillion in budget savings is looming, but no real reductions in the size, scope or spending of government are on the table. Instead, we are witnessing another obscene special-interest splurge to preserve the status quo....

...One left-wing Seattle blogger rather generously called Murray "tone-deaf" and spelled out the rank hypocrisy of Murray's entrenched and unrepentant lobbying ties: "This while members of her own party are up in arms over the increasing influence of money in American politics. This while a giant hunk of the liberal electorate is "Occupying" the streets to protest corporate greed and disproportional representation. This while the very term "lobbyist" has come to represent all that is bad about special interest influence."...
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Pat
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Chris
Nov 11 2011, 09:34 AM
Thumper
Nov 11 2011, 08:19 AM
One member here tends to blame many (if not all) of our nations ills on "Crony Capitalism" brought on by the dastardly liberals. What is Crony Capitalism and why is it a result of the Libs?
No, it's also brought on by conservatives and independents as well.

What is it?

Two other definitions first, from Franz Oppenheimer, The State. New York: Free Life Editions, 1908 (1975), pp. 24-25: I propose in the following discussion to call one’s own labor, and the equivalent exchange of one’s own labor for the labor of others, the ‘economic means’ for the satisfaction of needs, while the unrequited appropriation of the labor of others will be called the ‘political means’. IOW, if you go out in the marketplace and compete and cooperate in the exchange goods and services with others, that is the economic means. If instead you appeal to or purchase political power from the state to get what you desire from others, that is the political means.

Use of the political means is, imo, crony capitalism.

It can be blatant in the form of bribery, it can be insidious in the form of special interest lobbying, it can be democratic in voting for politicians who earmark funds, it can be obvious in social and corporate welfare.

The Christmas Tree Tax is an example, where a special interest group benefits from government regulation and tax. Iraq Oil Policy last decade was another. The FDA Kills gives some more. No point blaming a particular politician, it's rampant.

OWS wants to blame the 1%, and in many cases they're right, halfway, because the 1% purchases its power from the state. The state is simply the organization of political means.

It's also called corporatism, which is similar to mercantilism back to feudal times.

Hope that helps.

Questions?
An example would be the loan guarantee to the solar panel company that just went bankrupt. Crony capitalism poster child.
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Corky52
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A better example is the pipeline from Canada that will continue and increase our dependence on a declining resource while bolstering the existing corps at the expense of newer and better ways of doing things.


:smoker:
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