Posted on 03/29/2016 2:19:55 AM PDT by BlackAdderess
AMERICA used to be the land of opportunity and optimism. Now opportunity is seen as the preserve of the elite: two-thirds of Americans believe the economy is rigged in favour of vested interests. And optimism has turned to anger. Voters’ fury fuels the insurgencies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders and weakens insiders like Hillary Clinton.
The campaigns have found plenty of things to blame, from free-trade deals to the recklessness of Wall Street. But one problem with American capitalism has been overlooked: a corrosive lack of competition.
-snip-
The second step is to make life easier for startups and small firms. Concerns about the expansion of red tape and of the regulatory state must be recognised as a problem, not dismissed as the mad rambling of anti-government Tea Partiers. The burden placed on small firms by laws like Obamacare has been material. The rules shackling banks have led them to cut back on serving less profitable smaller customers. The pernicious spread of occupational licensing has stifled startups. Some 29% of professions, including hairstylists and most medical workers, require permits, up from 5% in the 1950s.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
62 people hold over half the world’s wealth. That is insane. That money should be seized
What bunch of condescending Douche Bags the writers are. Or does it gall them that those Tea Partier's who many of whom are small business men and women have been right all along.
Seizing people’s money without proof of wrongdoing is problematic. Better to simply make it possible to compete by scaling back on Obamacare and regulatory requirements, and better to prune back on copyright abuse.
I’ll take it. This article represents a 180 from a publication which in the past slavishly worshipped all things Obama.
That article is a mish-mash of muddled economic thinking, in which a few gems appeared. And reading the comments below it—sheesh. One guy even linked to his blog article where he extolled Marx’s discredited “from each according to his abilities to each according to his needs”—imagining, I guess, that enough people will freely choose to produce (without reward) that they can provide for all of the slackers who will choose to do nothing. Another idiot thinks that the best way to manage poverty is to give everyone a minimum income. Still others poo-poo the fact that minimum wage costs jobs.
That publication might call itself “The Economist” but if that article is a typical representation, neither its authors nor its readers understand economics.
I’m surprised this one made it past the editorial board of The Economist. They have turned into one of the biggest cheerleaders for NWO corporatism. The author will be punished.
Not to mention the vilification of capitalism in schools and universities, the exaltation of “public service”, poisoning the minds of our young against private sector players. The damaging altering of perception via the ubiquitous portrayal of “greedy” capitalists and pedophile clergy emanating from Hollywood productions......
....Corporate decision making skewed by ridiculous court rulings regarding product liability, an overall smog of potential litigation, creating a climate of fear in the boardroom.....the collusion of government with unions, interference in the hiring process in the name of social engineering, the erosion of rights of ownership on the sales floor for the same reason....
.....The usurpation of banks’ lending decision authority, followed by the assault on non-bank lending and sub-prime lenders by Dodd-Frank. OSHA largely funded by fines, Sarbanes-Oxley and the resultant near-paralysis of boardroom willingness to take risks.......creating an overall chill on equity financing and increased reliance on venture capital...
Labor boards, Obamacare and minimum wage laws altering the relationship between employer and employee, creating a win-lose climate of juxtaposed interests.......employers become the declared enemy of tax and regulatory policies......
All of the above ascribing sinister motives to the desire for profits and growth, neutering entrepreneurship and productivity of the manager class.... the not-so-small effect on employee productivity by the presence of the state-sponsored lotteries, an overt, institutionalized attack on the work ethic.....ditto the progressive income tax....
The purchase of big-business safety-nets through bailouts and legal skewing of markets by government picking winners and creating losers.....
So capital doesn’t know where to go.....afraid to stay when it gets there....consumer spending overrated, saving discouraged and under appreciated by policy makers......
Worst of all, government spending seen as stimulative, when it is just the opposite.
I’ll skip the article but I do appreciate the except. It brought back to mind that FA Hayak already wrote about socialism and competition.
It doesn't matter how much they OWN...what matters is what they do with their ownership. You and other socialist-thinkers apparently believe that they all have private bins of money, and swim around in the piles, a la Scrooge McDuck.
On the contrary...the income derived from that ownership is reinvested, and results in jobs employing many, many, many people.....and THAT is what matters....not ownership.
“62 people hold over half the world’s wealth. That is insane. That money should be seized.”
Actually call them out on this. Have them start with the Castro’s and Kim Jong Un.
That’s exactly what I was thinking too, though this new editor does seem an improvement over the last one.
Outright seizing turns out badly, but let me be the first to say that massively lopsided wealth distribution is one of the most common reasons for ‘peoples revolts’ in all of history right after government tyranny. Sooner or later some bright spark with a silver tongue figures out that they’re being suckered and the results are usually violent.
Apparently many people fail to grasp that the rich have rights too. It is just as wrong to make them "slaves of the state" by grossly confiscatory taxes as it would be of the meanest peasant. NOBODY's total tax load should be greater than 49% of their income. And that includes ALL taxes, fees, and anything else "acquired" by government statute. You want "graduated" taxation....fine. The range will be 0-49%, and include an inheritance tax.
I'm sure that those with the skill set to "make" prosperous businesses would rather be doing that than spending time with a bunch of shysters trying to figure out how to keep the gov't from stealing all their worldly goods.
The simple fact is that those third-world countries that adopt a free economy and recognize property rights increase their standards of living at a rate unprecedented in history. Those who establish or retain some form of socialism stay mired in poverty, or, if prosperous, quickly descend into poverty (Rhodesia, Venezuela and many more).
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