Million-Dollar Beer Babies

Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 6/17/2012 | Michael LaFaive

[MichCapCon]

In his book “New Ideas from Dead Economists,” economist Todd Buchholz quoted bank robber Willie Sutton to explain why so many businesses lobby government for special favors including tariffs, subsidies and monopoly privileges: “That’s where the money is,” Sutton once said when asked why he robbed banks.

In Michigan, the “bank” is the state Capitol in Lansing, and some of the favor-seekers have not only been spectacularly successful, but have preserved special privileges gained at the expense of their fellow citizens for literally decades, amassing fortunes in the process.

How large are those fortunes? The house (above) is one such owned by a lucky favor-seeker — a Michigan beer and wine wholesaler. Tax records indicate the house may have a market value in excess of $6.7 million. Who knows, maybe this palatial estate’s owner would have made his fortune even without having been granted exclusive regional beer and wine distribution territories. The favor-granting Lansing politicians sure did grease the skids, however, for this monopolist and a handful of other families whose own multi-million dollar mansions could just as easily provide this story’s cover photo.

It is worth noting that Mackinac Center analysts are not opposed to financial success or buying big houses. The issue here is not the house, but building wealth by extracting special, protective favors from the government.

[FormerACLUmember]

Crony capitalism with the local democrat party gangsters.

Like the history of every other hyper-corrupt Third World kleptocracy, you end up with the creation of a Detroit.

[Rudder]

The "House" in question.