Posted on 06/27/2010 2:00:30 PM PDT by ezfindit
In a recent interview, Steve Wynn, the successful American casino resort and real-estate developer, made some shocking observations about the unstable and aggressively anti-business atmosphere in America perpetuated by our own government. In his interview with CNBC, Steve expressed the nightmarish situation that US companies face due to the arbitrary, punitive, and misguided manner in which legislators in Washington, DC continue to endlessly tax and regulate businesses in America, while our economy continues to suffer and deteriorate.
In a criticism clearly directed at President Obama and the Democrats, Mr. Wynn focused on the key reason why America is now less stable and less business-friendly than even China: our own incompetent government in Washington! He explained how China now offers more political stability, more opportunities, and much more business-friendly environment than the United States: "Macau has been steady. The shocking, unexpected government is the one in Washington." (see video and actual transcript on the site)
(Excerpt) Read more at conservativedatingsite.com ...
The U.S. needs to revalue the dollar, 1 for 10 for example. Then announce that money will only be coined in Gold, Silver, copper and nickel. This will not go easy, but imagine if China does this first???? Or India etc.
Most Fortune 500 CEOs in America are not capitalists, and many stand to benefit from Obama's plan to fundamentally transform the United States of America. Many find that role of political entrepreneur is more prestigious than the role of economic entrepreneur and that rent-seeking is more lucrative than earning a profit in a free market. Providing goods and services is hard work. To do so at at profit is even more difficult, and derided by elites.
The natural tendency of Fortune 500 executives in a welfare state is to lobby for preferential regulations, subsidies, set-asides, government contracts, price floors and ceilings, etc., etc. That is not capitalism.
Wynn is a capitalist. He is different because he is personally invested in his company and the nature of his business is such that he cannot get much in the way of rent from government subsidies, contracts, etc. Rather, the government tolerates his business only because it can suck so much out of it.
Probably more like a lost generation or two.
Professor, I have worked in both countries, and your observation comports with my experience. To argue that China has a more stable business environment than the US does not negate criticism of their form of government and its lack of respect for individual rights. Of course, there’s a room for reasonable debate on this topic because nobody knows just how bad the US individual rights situation really is.
I am certain of three things. First, the founders of the USA left it with a much better form of government than the founders of the Peoples Republic of China. Second, although neither government has been overturned by revolution, the practice of government in both nations is radically different from what their respective founders intended. Third, the PRC political elite are more practical, intelligent, and competent than the US political elite.
WRT to property rights in China: After Kelo, the screwing of GM and Chrysler bondholders, the BP Plc shakedown, Congressional hearings on nationalizing 401k accounts, and the massive bailouts, I don’t know which nation is worse in this regard.
Do we really know China’s economy is strong? Do they have a free press that can tell it like it is? Where do their numbers come from? When was the last time China posted ANY economic numbers that showed anything was in bad shape?
I have traveled to China many times over the past 25 years. You don’t have to be an economist or a statistician to see that its economy has had an enormous rate of growth over that period. It’s obvious.
Does the PRC government manipulate its stats? Well, what government is pure in this regard? But if one visits a city after two years absence and notices that it has about 25% more large office buildings and more under construction, about 25% more traffic with more cars than motorcycles this time (where several years earlier one observed the Chinese combination roto-tiller/produce cart as the main type of motorized passenger conveyance), more roads and highways that expanded outward, one can pretty safely believe that the government’s report that the PRC has a 10% economic growth rate is about right.
No, they do not have a free press, nor does the PRC government recognize freedom of assembly, or freedom of religion, or many of the individual freedoms that we believe are unalienable rights. There’s lots of room for criticism of China on individual and civil rights. The economic success of China’s business environment is not evidence of the moral integrity of its government.
As for unfavorable economic numbers, I’m old enough to remember when the PRC was a Maoist totalitarian state closed off to the world. It didn’t report anything to anybody back then, and the situation was deplorable. That’s one reason why their growth rates over the past quarter-century have been so high. They were starting off an extraordinarily small base. It would be unreasonable for an advanced economy to target a long-term 5% growth rate, much less the 10%+ rates demonstrated by China.
Buildings can be mostly empty, but more cars, traffic, and roads are hard to fake. A lot of this reminds me of all the talk about Japan once upon a time. I can’t help but wonder what we are not seeing.
Great points! Quite true.
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