So You Despise Capitalism? Please Give Us Your Alternative...

[Intense]

I'm definitely open to hearing about a better system. I know our system isn't perfect but it's what we are.

Get Money Out

'Nuff said.

I don't trust it.

 

[editec]

Capitalism is NOT the problem.

CRONNY capitalism most definitely is.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Capitalism is NOT the problem.

CRONNY capitalism most definitely is.

Excellent point, Techy.

Sometimes the link to crony capitalism is difficult to see...

1. Big industry and big government have a thriving relationship. Sometimes this is difficult to see, as when the government seems to support legislation and regulation seemingly aimed at reeling in business excesses. But look closely. New regulations favor big industry which can afford new testing and procedures, and this effectively prevents new competitors from appearing.

a. When government instituted new regulations on tobacco companies, including preventing ‘flavored’ cigarettes. Bad for Philip Morris? No, it prevented smaller tobacco companies from fulfilling the new regs: Wall Street realized what was happening. Between the time the new regulations were proposed and the law passed, Philip Morris stock rose 35%. And just the law excluded ‘mint flavor,’ another advantage for PM.
Smoke Signals: Why a Tobacco Giant Is Backing a Tough New Antismoking Bill - TIME

b. Passing a huge restriction on any lead in clothing or toys for children. Any lead, even in buttons, zippers, although there was no way for the lead to harm any child sucking on these parts. The law required testing, certifying, and creating a registry for every part of every product. And any amount of lead ended the lawful use of the product. OK for Mattel, but not for any small clothing or toy manufacturer. And Mattel lobbyists helped write the law, as did Hasbro, so it happened to conform to the lab protocols used by Mattel.

No matter that charities such as Goodwill, and even garage sales and resales of used items could be legal, and lost millions.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2009286944_zhom01toysafety.http

Even the Consumer Product Safety Commission notified Congress that the Lead Law went way too far. Anne Northup: There Is No Joy in Toyland - WSJ.com..



2. Another name for crony capitalism is corporatism...and it isn't new.

The propaganda of the New Deal (“malefactors of great wealth”) to the contrary, FDR imply endeavored to re-create the corporatism of the last war. The New Dealers invited one industry after another to write the codes under which they would be regulated. Even more aggressive, the National Recovery Administration forced industries to fix prices and in other ways to collude with one another: the NRA approved 557 basic and 189 supplementary codes, covering almost 95% of all industrial workers.

a. The intention was for big business to get bigger, and the little guy to be squeezed out: for example, the owners of the big chain movie houses wrote the codes that almost ran the independents out of business (even though 13,571 of the 18,321 movie theatres were independently owned). This in the name of ‘efficiency’ and ‘progress.’

b. New Deal bureaucrats studied Mussolini’s corporatism closely. From “Fortune” magazine: ‘The Corporate state is to Mussolini what the New Deal is to Roosevelt.’(July 1934)
Covered fully in "Liberal Fascism," by Goldberg.

 

[Uncensored2008]

In other words, your bread and butter!!!

I'm not Barack Obama, dummy.