tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6322916946732811685.post817203579740995355..comments2024-03-28T16:31:54.494-04:00Comments on Borepatch: We are now run by Big Business, Big Banks, and Big BureaucratsBorepatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05029434172945099693noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6322916946732811685.post-79564577497444406222014-02-01T20:35:58.897-05:002014-02-01T20:35:58.897-05:00I'm not sure we've ever had a free market....I'm not sure we've ever had a free market. It's sort of mythic. What we have now resembles a free about as much as a Mac Truck resembles the original Mini Cooper. <br /><br />Almost entirely but not quite unlike a free market is what we have. <br /><br />It doesn't help to have an open market when ever other market is protectionist. Setting up rules to make free trade that only goes one direction (or mostly) is not in the long run beneficial to anyone, The short term, benefits are the problem, they are significant. I liken it to solving your starvation problem by eating your feet. Great, your not hungry now, but you've just removed the ability to hunt and gather so...<br /><br />Sadly when you want to take a longer term view, someone always wants you to go a bit further than is rational. Environmentalist are so concerned about us running the planet that they feel sure we'd be better off we just froze to death in the dark.<br /> <br />A politician never thinks in terms of generations, they think in terms of election cycles. Any decision around and election that doesn't sound like something for nothing is BAD, and folks have always wanted to get something for nothing. Businesses are worse, they think in terms of quarters. <br /><br />There is a symbiosis between politicians and big business, and the resulting critter feeds off the middle class. Sadly, it's a fatal affliction, slow, oh so slow, but fatal. <br /><br />When you've converted the middle class into members of the poor, you've killed the beast. It will just stumble around making big messes until the signal that it's dead reaches the atrophied brain. Then it falls over - making another mess.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00391535113209714025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6322916946732811685.post-55163912817750388252014-02-01T17:24:22.055-05:002014-02-01T17:24:22.055-05:00Free trade and globalization has done more to deci...Free trade and globalization has done more to decimate the middle and working classes in this country than anything else that I can think of.<br /><br />Other than tax policy that rewards passive investment over active efforts, that is.Comrade Misfithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15404477636451308763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6322916946732811685.post-90527709908817717372014-02-01T15:40:30.095-05:002014-02-01T15:40:30.095-05:00Regardless of how it plays out, WE are the losers....Regardless of how it plays out, WE are the losers... again...Old NFOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16404197287935017147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6322916946732811685.post-7692524981992979082014-02-01T15:23:34.321-05:002014-02-01T15:23:34.321-05:00Borepatch you hit the nail on the head with the ma...Borepatch you hit the nail on the head with the main post and one of your follow up posts. I would like to add this tidbit since you seem to be going in that direction. Its not only Big Businesses and .gov types as it is special interests that are inbred to both of those above systems. You mentioned that in China you can have a factory up and running in six months, where here it takes years due to regulations and the like. Well that's a huge issue and that's just the surface issue. No one seems to mind when factories with no regulations are created off shores (I'm looking at you environmental weenies. Sorta like no windfarms/light rail trains in my back yard types..) and no one checks in on how much the factories wreck where they operate. And the businesses are all to happy to go there where they can operate with both cheap labor and little to no regulation on anything. I dare say they would destroy much more environment over there than they would here. So the Green weenies push the stuff away where the pollution and labor abuse is much worse but poof its someone else's problem now right?<br />And as much as the Republicans have wrecked things if I'm not mistaken I think that the income disparity has grown under Democrat leadership as well as cooperate taxes paid in. Due to off shoring to avoid massive taxes or like General Electric contribute heavily to the Democrats and pay no taxes though impressive accounting departments yet never get mentioned as the bad guys that never pay enough taxes in stump speeches. Yet the party line folks never see the rot in their own side.Jesterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17973419641321027031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6322916946732811685.post-13853767805354435572014-02-01T15:03:35.356-05:002014-02-01T15:03:35.356-05:00DontWantTo, I'm a big fan of Schumpeter and cr...DontWantTo, I'm a big fan of Schumpeter and creative destruction. But that's not what we're seeing now. Rather than newer and more efficient techniques replacing older ones (i.e. true higher national income), economic decisions are massively distorted by oppressive environmental, permitting, land use, labor regulations.<br /><br />These are all pushed as political ends by self-interested organizations, i.e. no true increase in national income.<br /><br />There hasn't been a free market for most of my lifetime on these shores. But in China? You want a factory? It'll be up and running in six months.<br /><br />Bottom line, the "benefits" of the regulatory burden are entirely political, and the costs to our neighbors is financial. Not what I'd really classify under "Creative Destruction".Borepatchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05029434172945099693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6322916946732811685.post-14906363755935717722014-02-01T14:41:49.675-05:002014-02-01T14:41:49.675-05:00DontWantTo: No, but I'd ask the tire factory o...DontWantTo: No, but I'd ask the tire factory owner to come tell the employees that he's sending their jobs overseas because he values money more than them, instead of hiding behind layers of managers, executives, stockbrokers, and mutual funds.<br />Dave Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04813274491601970838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6322916946732811685.post-27812000570427880852014-02-01T14:23:24.103-05:002014-02-01T14:23:24.103-05:00I started a reply. It turned into a post at my pl...I started a reply. It turned into a post at my place. I'd be interested in your thoughts, because I struggle with this one.Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16491837200315862253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6322916946732811685.post-60616535430946243122014-02-01T13:14:32.783-05:002014-02-01T13:14:32.783-05:00Most of the winners are our neighbors, too -- even...Most of the winners are our neighbors, too -- even if most of our neighbors aren't winners (yet). Creative destruction is as cruel as a blizzard, but it's part and parcel of individual economic liberty. What would you do, tell the tire factory owner he/she/it cannot go out of business?DontWantTohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05405299723298312013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6322916946732811685.post-34824167710640241262014-02-01T12:37:04.108-05:002014-02-01T12:37:04.108-05:00Every time I see the words "per capita" ...Every time I see the words "per capita" I translate it to "for somebody else." Economic output for somebody else goes up. National income for somebody else increases.<br /><br />I'm not proposing wealth redistribution, but anybody who thinks a policy that improves a per capita measurement is a good thing, needs to do his bloody homework. (Asking "what does this cost?" is a good first step.)<br />Dave Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04813274491601970838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6322916946732811685.post-56256856868634159622014-02-01T10:42:48.743-05:002014-02-01T10:42:48.743-05:00Thanks for the link, Ted. Buchanan has always bee...Thanks for the link, Ted. Buchanan has always been a classic isolationist; not only non-interventionist, which many people think of as isolationism, but also protectionist, as well.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11402651457453813639noreply@blogger.com