[sagar]

“That’s crony capitalism at work, not the free market. The more people out of work, the more on government assistance, and the fewer customers for a business’ products, leading to more consolidation. The endgame is nationalization, whether de jure or de facto.”

Nothing “crony” about free-market capitalism where companies want to keep costs low, which means taking care of each line item. Labor costs are typically the biggest cost factors. Just pure accounting, nothing crony capitalistic about this.

Having said that, providing freebies is socialism. Complain that gubmint is providing freebies. Don’t complain that companies are trying to make money and streamline.

[Olog-hai]

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Nothing “crony” about free-market capitalism where companies want to keep costs low, which means taking care of each line item. Labor costs are typically the biggest cost factors …

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So draconian corporate taxation, micromanaging regulation and the like are not the biggest factors in cost, which are not in control of the companies but of the government? That was what I was talking about.

And don’t forget that taking over big businesses was a goal of the communists dating back over a half-century, per the communist goals for the USA in the Congressional record (goal #37; taking over unions was goal #36 on the list). It would be presumptuous at this point to think that this is merely about streamlining, which, frankly, is forced by their cohorts in government; most definitely cronyism.