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Posted on 04/10/2026 7:15:51 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Noted libertarian Charles Koch, writing in the Washington Post, argued that he agreed with one claim made by socialist Senator Bernie Sanders: that the system is rigged in favor of the few.
This result, he argues, can only be accomplished when society is experiencing continued, preferably increasing, economic growth. Is there something inherent in the system of natural liberty, or in human nature itself, that is systematically corrupting in ways that undermine its claims of universal benefits? —
[Adam] Smith warned that natural liberty faces natural obstacles in the form of human nature, particularly the desire of especially “merchants and manufacturers” to “rig the system.” They accomplish this self-enriching corruption of free markets by using the power of government to procure for themselves “systems either of preference or of restraint.” In so doing, they impose an “absurd tax on the rest of their fellow-citizens.” These preferences and restraints are what we today call crony capitalism.
For Smith, cronyism fails on two grounds: It is unjust, favoring a few at the expense of the many, and it is destructive of the desired end of political economy—economic growth…
While the concept of a free market may be obvious and simple, its achievement or perpetuation is not. Despite spending much of his book detailing the folly of preferences and restraints, Smith is not sanguine about “completely” removing them: “To expect, indeed, that the freedom of trade should ever be entirely restored in Great Britain, is as absurd as to expect that an Oceana or Utopia should ever be established in it.”
Free markets are neither self-establishing nor self-maintaining. If we are to continue to reap the very real benefits of natural liberty, we must be prepared for a constant political defense against cronyism…
(Excerpt) Read more at heritage.org ...
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I read once where half of the world‘s wealth is held by 80 people. 80 people could fit comfortably in one train car.
We don’t have capitalism, we have korporatism.
I am finding out as I grow older (really old) that just about EVERYTHING is rigged. Only God’s Word and His faithfulness are not rigged. I wish more people could see that and live the life/value system He provides for us.
“(1) limiting government to a few essential powers (defense, administration of impartial justice, and certain limited public works and institutions); and (2) educating the public concerning the “folly” of attempts to direct the economy by legislators. These approaches offer the best chance to limit crony capitalism, its corruption of natural liberty, and its consequent undermining of benefits of free markets. “
And how do you do that magic? And who does it?
This is the 80/20 rule.
E.g., If you look at the productivity of any organization, 80% of its productivity is created by 20% of the employees. Effort, work $$, etc all ......... “collect” according to this this spectrum.
Everything. Everywhere. Every organization since the beginning of time.
You only don’t see this if your organization oppresses the high producers — that slews the spectrum and obscures the poor productivity of the one who don’t produce much. But, when you do that all creativity ends since you now don’t get anything from those high-producers.
And Charles Koch would be sitting in the front of that train. Of course the system is rigged, he and his late brother David did a lot of the rigging,
The only way to fight this is transparency.
E.g., for gov’mt officials, like CongressCritters becoming millionaires. Once you are in office all of your income becomes public. Not from before. Just on the 1st day your butt hits the chair of power.
Did you buy stock and it soared? Well, that goes on your WWWpage. Did you get $$ as a new board member of a corp? Same.
Yes. The best rig jobs are the ones that do the best job of presenting themselves as fair.
When people believe the process is fair, they accept their losses.
This is true in everything from sports to markets.
It’s all about competition, but when the competitors (and the spectators) believe in the system, the system wins, regardless of how the competitors fare.
Our confiscatory system of government would be considered nothing more than organized crime if not for the fact that nearly everyone involved accepts its authority to take and grant them everything that they deal with.
The solution to this is not more government action, but less. Removing the preferences or restraints imposed by the government.
"[Adam] Smith warned that natural liberty faces natural obstacles in the form of human nature, particularly the desire of especially “merchants and manufacturers” to “rig the system.” They accomplish this self-enriching corruption of free markets by using the power of government to procure for themselves “systems either of preference or of restraint.” In so doing, they impose an “absurd tax on the rest of their fellow-citizens.” These preferences and restraints are what we today call crony capitalism.
This is what the North did to the South because they had control of Congress. They rigged the economic system through government passed laws to favor the Northern merchants and industrialists.
This is why the South wanted out of the system. The South would have seen hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue into their economy, just from leaving the North.
So. Here we have a libertarian and a socialist arguing crony capitalism is bad.
All Right Then.
If that’s what they think - Bring on More Crony Capitalism!
Government exists for the sole purpose of taxing both the ownership and the transacting of property. All other functions of the government simply serve to legitimize and justify that purpose.
I believe our founders missed the ball and whiffed hard when they did not enshrine the limitation of government from taxing the ownership of private property.
I’d be willing to live with the idea that government can get a cut (rationalized as “taxation”) every time two parties exchange private property, mostly for the sole purpose of funding public infrastructure and even some services (such as defense and protecting public safety). But the moment anyone other than the owner of private property can penalize them for owning that property, private property no longer exists.
It is an illusion.
...and thus, so is the entire system that is built around it.
In the Bible, if the merchants tried to do business on the Sabbath, they were to be put to death. You have to put your boot on the necks of the merchants or else theytake over as they have. From the beginning of human history, money talks.
The key phrase when it comes to governmental involvement is “economic justice” or “EJ”. This is the nice-sounding umbrella under which the government manipulates outcomes to favor specific groups, i.e. it is the cover for governmental racism, favoritism, and cronyism.
As you rightly say, the solution is not to tweak the laws but to remove government entirely. “Climate change policy” offers a current example - we will suffer the results of nice-sounding EJ policies for decades to come, because even one as opposed to these ideas as Trump is cannot undo most of them. Congress is responsible, or I should say, “irresponsible”.
We don’t have capitalism, we have korporatism.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We have “Plunder”.
Frederic Bastiat got it 100% correct in his classic essay “The Law”. It should be required reading before you can legally vote.
https://fee.org/wp-content/uploads/ebooks/the-law-final-text-only.pdf
Any representative democracy will eventually devolve into fascism - and by fascism I mean it in its real sense, where industry and politicians get power by scratching each other’s back, ie crony capitalism.
The industrialist are good at making money and the politicians are good at getting the masses to vote for them by promising them free goodies. So the industrialists and politicians form a symbiotic relationship.
No. That is not the way.
All members of Congress should be precluded from increasing their wealth beyond what can be added to their wealth from their congressional salary alone.
No stock investments, no speaking fees, no other sources of income allowed for members of congress. (And heavy scrutiny of their family to insure they aren't trying to use a back door.)
Congress should not be allowed to gain wealth. They should be forced to either choose to serve, or stay out of congress.
I always get a kick out of socialists who want gov to run everything because there are so many evil business people, as if only saints are in the government.
They don’t seem to realize that the only way for the biz people to get away with anything is to have someone on the gov side working with them.
As long as humans have government - our political-economy will be, to some extent “rigged.”
As Smith points out, the simplest regulation will benefit some, and harm another.
In a marxist system, literally everything is rigged. That is why human spirit is crushed, government must necessarily be brutal, and extreme corruption is ALWAYS the end result.
In the USA, our “rigging” comes from our printed, fiat money, issued by our Federal Reserve system. Look up the term “Cantillon Effects” - Smith was very familiar with this.
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