This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
How Washington D.C. Is Sucking The Life Out Of America
Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
- Tacitus
Ever since I started writing about what is happening in the world around me, my primary theme has been that the root cancer at the core of the U.S., and indeed global economy, is cronyism and an absence of the rule of law when it comes to oligarchs. In the U.S., this cronyism is best described as an insidious relationship between large multi-national corporations and big government to funnel all of the wealth and resources of the nation to themselves at the expense of everyone else. In a genuine free market defined by heightened competition and governed by an equal application of the rule of law to all, the 0.1% does not aggregate all of a nation’s wealth. This sort of thing only happens in crony capitalism, which is basically nothing more than complete and total insider deals to aggregate newly created money into the hands of the few.
The following profile of Washington D.C.’s so-called “boom” from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch pretty much tells you all you need to know. While I think the tone of the article is absurd considering this is no “economic boom,” but merely parasitic wealth extraction on a unprecedented scale, it is still quite telling. It is no coincidence that as D.C. has grown wealthier, the nation has become much, much poorer. Key excerpts below:
The avalanche of cash that made Washington rich in the last decade has transformed the culture of a once staid capital and created a new wave of well-heeled insiders.
The winners in the new Washington are not just the former senators, party consiglieri and four-star generals who have always profited from their connections. Now they are also the former bureaucrats, accountants and staff officers for whom unimagined riches are suddenly possible. They are the entrepreneurs attracted to the capital by its aura of prosperity and its super-educated workforce. They are the lawyers, lobbyists and executives who work for companies that barely had a presence in Washington before the boom.
At the same time, big companies realized that a few million spent shaping legislation could produce windfall profits. They nearly doubled the cash they poured into the capital.
Sorry these aren’t “entrepreneurs,” they are parasitic opportunists.
At Cafe Joe, a greasy spoon near the National Security Agency in suburban Maryland, software engineers with top-secret clearances merely have to look at the place mats under their fried eggs to find federal contractors trying to entice them away from their government jobs with six-figure salaries and stock options. The place-mat ads cost $250 a week. They are sold out through 2014.
During the past decade, the region added 21,000 households in the nation’s top 1 percent. No other metro area came close.
Two forces triggered the boom.
The share of money the government spent on weapons and other hardware shrank as service contracts nearly tripled in value. At the peak in 2010, companies based in Rep. James Moran’s congressional district in Northern Virginia reaped $43 billion in federal contracts — roughly as much as the state of Texas.
Back in 2000, the company spent a mere $260,000 lobbying Congress, federal records show. Its lobbyists mostly talked to lawmakers about health care: medical manufacturing issues, Medicare reimbursement rates, privacy of health records, and congressional oversight of the Food and Drug Administration.
By the end of the decade, the company had broadened its horizons dramatically. “Government relations” now accounted for $2.6 million — a tenfold increase. On one quarterly disclosure report from 2010, Boston Scientific listed 35 different pieces of legislation on which it was lobbying. They included proposals on patent reform, tax penalties for moving American jobs abroad, tax credits for research and development, rules for transporting lithium batteries, limits on workers’ ability to form labor unions and federal regulation of certain types of financial derivatives.
Government relations has become so important to the bottom line of a modern company, Becker said, that it should be a required course at business school. The numbers suggest she’s right. Companies spent about $3.5 billion annually on lobbying at the end of the last decade, a nearly 90 percent increase from 1999 after adjusting for inflation, political scientist Lee Drutman notes in a forthcoming book, “The Business of America Is Lobbying.”
And you wonder why the economy sucks?
Legal services also boomed, fueled by the growing complexities of federal business regulations. The number of lawyers in the D.C. metro area increased by a third from 2000 to 2012, nearly twice as fast as the growth rate nationwide. And those lawyers have the highest mean salaries in the country, according to George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis.
The more companies spend on influence, the lower their effective tax rates and the higher their stock returns compared with competitors’, according to recent research. A company called Strategas has built an index to track the stock performance of the 50 companies that lobby the most; last year, that index outperformed the rest of the market by 30 percent.
If you still are confused why the U.S. economy is completely stuck in the mud, look no further than the parasites of Washington D.C.
Full article here.
- 29246 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


DC, home of the sharks. We are the bait ball.
Kudos to ZH (credit in the link below) and others for catching the BIGGER story in April of this year. The implications are Weimar/Argentinain mind boggling...
The Missing Story from the New York Post’s Obama Unemployment FraudGreat quote from good read,
"Of course the Iraq War, Obamacare nightmare, and the number of convictions after the 2007-2009 financial crisis might just discount anyone’s rational faith in political leadership in our nation."
Then the thought occured to me, how is rational defined now days.
Why do you think everyone is familiar with the expression "beltway bandits"?
Opportunity-motive-temptation and Bingo! deal done.
Remember the battle of Athens Tennessee.
It's amazing what a little bit of dynamite can fix.
;)
Nothing ever changed in the last 100 years. Nothing will ever change. It has only gotten worse. The sooner we realize this the sooner we can change the system. Articles don't spearhead change anymore.
Haha, great article.
If all those stats are BS, I bet Backdoor Barry only got 12% of the vote.
Do we really need more examples of failure from our representitives in DC, I think not.
The Global Criminal Oligarch Cabal Bankster Intelligence Crime Syndicate.
Based out of:
D.C. District of Criminals. Military might of Criminal CIA
City of London. Bankster location
Vatican City. Jesuit Intelligence
Isreal. Zionist Media
The Saudis are also part of the Cabal. Freemasonry is an ingredient in all three flavors of Abrahamic religions.
Sad what happens when people listen to idiots. You obviously don’t know any Masons. If they claim to be and are filling your head with imaginings about what goes on in secret meetings consider this: Whoever claims to have this inside knowledge is either an outright liar who has never been in a lodge meeting or an outright liar who has broken his oath. Either way, neither should be believed.
Have you achieved the 33rd rite or above? If not, you are a plebe who would not know of such things. Now go practice your secret handshake.
I asked a 33rd Degree about it once. He denied it, of course. So I figured either he was lying or there's a 33 1/3 degree that he didn't know about.
Of course he was lying! You don't get to 33rd degree without learning how to lie to the Unenlightened! I'm sure that's covered way down around the 12th degree.
Bubblegum The hidden hand paints the scenery for every act of this play, no matter what century you live in.
It's fruitful to review a lesson or two from history. Prior to the Bolshevik revolution, the Russian power considered themselves invincible. They showed utmost disdain for popular discontent. They mowed down popular, peaceful demonstration. It got serious when the Russian govt started to shoot the demonstrator, then the revolution began to gather mass and shoot back.
So, today's situation is not there yet. People are not quite demonstrating. Though the govt of USA still is as arrogant as the previous tyrannical govt.
One must wait for the shooting moment to start, and for that to happen, people must take to the street. Much waiting awaits.
What are we waiting for? Word to get out on Facebook?
They will do something stupid like outlaw Bitcoin or confiscate gold. Then there will be a few videos going viral of a local police/military force beating a 9 year old girl to death for trying to stop them from arresting her dad.
But it will be on You Tube and THEN the shit will cook.
This is why DHS has regional FUSION-CENTERS all over the country ready for rapid response, ... just in case a few monkeys get a little cocky.
Fear not the US public 'frog' was boiled years ago, the population are sheep.
The Russians had something to fight for, and were honorable people and had history of fighting, and a vision.
The USA is a nation of welfare parasites, ... big fucking difference.
Now with NSA spying all they have to do is say "Your food stamp cards will de-activate if you violate curfew", Then nobody will leave their house.
The new america is here.
I don't do foodstamps and if it's my time to go, I'l by damn sure take out a few of the .gov /HS geeks with me.
There's alot of us that have not be boiled.
Looks like that along with term limits we need to physically move the seat of federal government to St. Louis.
Time to fight back against these economic dictators and slave masters.
The Gangs of DC.
//////////
Todays WTF moment in der Fatherland:
North Texas Drivers Stopped at Roadblock Asked for Saliva, Blood Fort Worth police apologize for its role in federal surveyhttp://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/North-Texas-Drivers-Stopped-at-Roadblock-Asked-for-Saliva-Blood-232438621.html
This happened in Texas? And nobody said "Fuck off!"?
Doomed!!!
I thought you "Don't mess with Texas" .... guess not.
<<<<< Shameless promotion,
<<<<< Free Bitcoins at http://freebitco.in/?r=25727
I'm not usually the first in line to call for kicking somebody off the board, but can we kick this guy off the board already?
I'm hoping Hitlery will throw a party and offer him some 'good stuff,' which he ODs on.
"I didn't know he brought that to the party."
But everbody in Cleveland got OBAMAPHONE!
Parasites will kill the host if left untreated.......time for some serious treatments.
Treat with Talspar. Repeat as often as needed.
The only way it will ever change is when Americans show up in D.C. with the same numbers that showed up for his first inauguration.
Only that next visit will be to extract him from the oval office permanently.
First of all it will never happen. The nation is nicely divided between the reds and the blues so more than likely we would see an uncivil war rather than the two sides tossing off their blinders to see just how they are being played.
Secondly, even if there was a march on Washington to drag his ass out what would you replace him with? I despise the guy as much as anybody else, but Zero is nothing more than a symptom of a sick and dying country. He is a lightning rod put into place, like Bush before him, to distract the nation while the owners extract that last remaining of wealth from the country.
Yes, you can't just take out the puppets. You also have to take out the puppet masters. The puppets know who the puppet masters are. You may even have to take out the associates of the puppet masters.
And then go after the puppet nasters, masters. Tunnels everywhere. Matrix within a matrix.
But you still have to start somewhere.
I hear some say the bankers and politicians families-AND extended families will not be safe.
Yes, never happened.
I have thought about this for years, the Russians had a history, but the USA is a prison colony, and a nation of serfs from day one.
Never in all of USA history has anybody stood up to the system,.. never happened in the past and will never happen in the future.
Uh, I'd say Edward Snowden counts.
As for "a nation of serfs from day one", I'd like to see you say that to Thomas Jefferson's face, or Benjamin Franklin's. (And I'm not even an American.)
I hate to say it but I gotta agree with Carlin. Shay's Rebellion, Whiskey Rebellion, the putdown of the Bonus Army and of course The War of Northern Aggression. The fight against tyranny in our nation has met very limited success over the years. Of course time, place, and distance from a financially strapped adversary largely aided the cause of Tom and Ben.
President Biden?
Stop teasing us.
yep,
too many people believe the narrative that the USA was ever a great nation, .. or whatever,
we came here from europe, we killed the natives stole thir land, raped and robbed blundered all, by the 1980's the easy loot is/was gone,
now for the past 30 years the greatest colony of locust in human history turns on itself,
Mostly the natives died out without directly be killed. The first huge wave was due to disease that came with the Spanish some generations before Jamestown. Those settlers were shocked to find the continent nearly empty of people. Following that there was some assholery on both sides, in which the stone age Indians kept losing, each and every time they preferred not to be assimilated. Personally I am 1/16th Cherokee. Fuck you Andrew Jackson!
IF they know your coming they will pull a Tampa on ya!
The only way it will ever change is when Americans show up in D.C. with the same numbers that showed up for his first inauguration.
Only that next visit will be to extract him from the oval office permanently.
It is probably more accurate to say this is simply "cronyism". It has nothing to do with whether the nominal political system being deformed is capitalist, socialist, or communist. It's about people in power granting opulent benefits to their cronys to the disadvantage of everyone else who must abide by objective law.
Simply put, it's how government works.
And to entrust it with the control of law is beyond the pale.
Kleptocracy!
"Only Little people go to jail."
Jammy Diamond
Hunger games bitchez! The rest of the country starves while the Washington/ Wallstreet parasite sucks all the wealth to it and kills the host.
Using cancer as a model, cancer is not by definition self-limiting. It will result in the death of all as we collectively hurtle towards the edge.
One fine day predicted by no one, things will cease.
Unrestrained militarism is the very definition of official state terrorism.
Military Cancer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHmhrtx9C_4
Guns Or Butter?
The Pentagon's Doctored Ledgers Conceal Epic Waste
LETTERKENNY ARMY DEPOT, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania -
Linda Woodford spent the last 15 years of her career inserting phony numbers in the U.S. Department of Defense's accounts.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36908.htm
The Navy charges the taxpayer $604 for a toilet seat? $7600 for coffee machines?
Crime does pay.
The theft, graft, corruption is right out in the open.
You can't say it any better than Upton Singclair: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Washington D.C. has lost its world status. Even Russian politicians are introducing legislation in Russia to make the dollar illegal because it is a ponzi scheme.
The Washington D.C. traitors and FED banking cartel is also about done. They have killed the host.
Where will this tribe of parasites go next? Back to their ancient home of central asia?
They are not the Tribes of the old Testament.
The russian politicos are doing this because the ruble is a joke. They don't want the local peons using Euro or USD but they themselves love foreign "hard" currencies more than life itself and certainly more than the totally debauched ruble.
Last time I say thius!
Real patriots would start by making K Street a ghost street!
Obama the people on that street are inside terrorist.
An excellent suggestion.
Anyone who chooses the path of violence ahould go after the denizens of K Street, not random security guards, mailmen or other small fry.
The lobbying industry lies near to the heart of the system, and is a relatively soft target. They'll get the message.
Uncle Scam is doing quite well. There should be as little government as possible, next to none and getting smaller for the simple reason that the only qualification for being a government "employee" is that you have to get more votes than your competitor. Try buiding an airplane with people whose only known qualifications are that they obtained more votes - yeah, right....
There is no governemnt now. Only graft and corruption. There is only one small hope and that is the rise of the TEA. And admittedly, it is a small hope. If we don't clean out the vermin (Reids). The weak minded (Pelosis), If the TEA is unsuccessful in 2014....we lose it. Time is running out.
Fate the Magnificent
"Push the Button, Max"
Too late.
Crossed the Rubicon.
Notice how citizens of all stripes - angry at their loss of civil liberty, rights, and power - were rapidly marginalized into a pocket of one party?
A majority of the populace are under the spell of MSM propaganda and red team/blue team delusion.
The only change will come about from economic collapse and the rise of a military junta or a dictator.
The political process, the electorate, and the branches of government are abjectly non-functional.
The U.S. will grind downwards as Rome did until the barbarians tear it down.
More than likely a nuclear conflagration before all is said and done.
I regret bringing children into the world.
Yep,
Your all in the RAINBOW tent ( blue/red ), unless you escaped from the USA long ago.
Look +60% of US citizens are on the DOLE ( get a gubmint US treasury deposit ) every month,
Now the majority of US citizens, support infinite QE,
TEA is about 5%, and they're only TEA cuz they're not willing to lower themselves to the pig trough.
If you have any loot, you got the fuck out of the USA years ago.
Yep.
Seems like all these world powers dissipate over time, like the entropy law, where matter goes from organized to disorganized.
However, WE can still be Americans even if America has gone corrupt.
Or Just good people; however you want to describe it.
Are there Supreme Court Justices other than Scalia and Thomas for sale?
Is the corporate status of indiviuals at risk?
Are not the corporate Unions, whoops my bad, PAC'S and lobbyists not doing their job?
Don't make us send the bikers back up there again, next time they won't be so polite ! 2 million pissed off bikers = parasite controll.
Pack'n heat & handcuffs this time.
Citizens arrest, citizens arrest!!!!!!!!!!!
Gomer Pyle
"Don't make us send the bikers back up there again,"
To much Sons of Anarchy?
nuke it
Its the only way to be sure.
Where's Al Qaeda when there's the annual State of the Union with the DC whores filtering in at the watering hole?
Two thumbs up for an excellent post. I will bash you for 'stupid' propaganda posts like the one you posted on SNAP, but, this makes up for the other one.
The government spends as much every year as the combined after tax income of all Americans put together. Of course they ignore consumers and go directly to the government.
And that's just the federal government.
With all this statism, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler and Mao would be very proud.
Is this statist or capitalist?
"Sorry these aren’t “entrepreneurs,” they are parasitic opportunists.
The rest of the world is watching Amurika in it's death throws!
Gonna be fun watching all them freeloaders ( gubmint employees, politicos, financial vermin, legal & pharma trough pigs, consultants of swing and various other leach critters ) who have drained the small businesses for decades turn on each other.
The drones are circling overhead so hold on tight.
Worked for a small businessman who paid his workers late on Fridays. It was then a mad dash to the bank cause it was well known that last couple of checks were gonna bounce.
Funny thing was, he advertised himself as a "Christian" contractor. Even had little signs with Bible quotes inn his yard.
Is the apple rotten to the core? We are a funny people.
liars,charlatans and bankers always wrap themselves in religion, hence Llyod Feinstein's quote that Goldman Sacks (da country) is just doing God's work.
Religion is at its heart a tool of deception, a class of people, (priests) are entrusted with special knowledge from God and only they can help you.
Except they have no special knowledge except fror "people are gullible and they can be manipulated by those they view as superior." The key is to differiante youself so you can be seen as superior and then enslave your fellow man, whether emotionally,socially, legally or financially.
The world is your oyster when you are a pyschopath. Bankers are the new priest class and we must sacrifice our economy to them, over and over to bring back the rain.
If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, then surely religion must be the first (or second, not sure if environmentalism beats it or if it's a religion in its own right).
"I just wish people wouldn't quote Lincoln or the Bible, or hang out the flag or the cross, to cover up something that belongs more to the bank-book and the three golden balls." -- Sinclair Lewis
"The world is your oyster when you are a pyschopath."
Except, of course, when a bigger psychopath comes a-knockin'...
Yep. Worked for 'defense' related business (120 ppl) years ago, the owner a 'devout' mormon regularly made employees charge their hours to cost plus programs when the employees worked on fixed cost programs. Some employees who didn't want to do some boring work handed classified documents to an employee who did not have clearance.... and the employee called the DoD saying so ... he was fired within 1 hr with 2 of the company thugs walking him out with zero repercussion to the company. About 3 years later the owner sold the company for a cool $50 million and ran for local political office.
Their lack of survivalist skills will surely haunt them. Although,,,their paper assets will wipe their assets and that's all they'll have.
We are the New Rome, the new Sodom and Gomorrah, the new Egypt complete with Pharaohs.
The U.S. will go down in history as the greatest tragic downfall of a society - and the progenitor of the collapse of Western Civilization.
Thanks Washington and Wall Street, you festering hives of scum and villainy!
Fortunately history repeats itself before it gets that chance, and on the chance that we do get lucky and make it to utopia, we would skip the tragic downfall of a society. Otherwise it's back to the future to try again my friend.
I can assure you that there will be no utopia. Not in this century. Not in this millenium.
http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/1994...
How EXCESSIVE GOVERNMENT KILLED ANCIENT ROME Bruce BartlettAWESOME bunny!!! Thanks. Going out this morning to everyone I know...
Thanks Bunny. Very interesting read. It is chilling to read how that historical account is so similar to what is happening in Washington today.
Great article, thanks for sharing. Here's the punchline. Just replace "Rome" with "USA" or "the West" and that's the next chapter in history, already written down for us:
"In the end, there was no money left to pay the army, build forts or ships, or protect the frontier. The barbarian invasions, which were the final blow to the Roman state in the fifth century, were simply the culmination ofthree centuries ofdeterioration in the fiscal capacity of the state to defend itself. Indeed, many Romans welcomed the barbarians as saviors from the onerous tax burden.’
Although the fall of Rome appears as a cataclysmic event in history, for the bulk of Roman citizens it had little impact on their way of life. As Henri Pirenne (1939: 33—62) has pointed out, once the invaders effectively had displaced the Roman government they settled into governing themselves. At this point, they no longer had any incentive to pillage, but rather sought to provide peace and stability in the areas they controlled. After all, the wealthier their subjects the greater their taxpaying capacity.
In conclusion, the fall of Rome was fundamentally due to economic deterioration resulting from excessive taxation, inflation, and overregulation. Higher and higher taxes failed to raise additional revenues because wealthier taxpayers could evade such taxes while the middle class—and its taxpaying capacity—were exterminated. Although the final demise of the Roman Empire in the West (its Eastern half continued on as the Byzantine Empire) was an event of great historical importance, for most Romans it was a relief."
Wait are you calling Mexican narco-warriors barbarians? Dat's racist amigo!
Washington is not the country. It burned once in the War of 1812. The country continued. History will repeat itself.
Mike, the parasites are all over the place.
And with regard to "crony capitalism" it would be best not to disparage capitalism, but rather zero-in on corruption, and leave capitalism alone.
You (I presume) will not like any alternative -- choose your missive wisely; unfortunately there are those who are chomping at the bit to exploit isms at every chance.
"but rather zero-in on corruption,"
And therein lies the heart of the problem.
Its all a small town without a sheriff ... or the sheriff is on the take as well.
This really pisses me off. I can only say the following; you fucking .gov assholes are not going to tell me when I can pick up my child from school or how I should go about such a simple act. This guy got jobbed. I don't care if the guy might not be a model parent because it is his child and not the state's child. Fucking ridiculous. I have to give the guy some credit for trying to be calm.
Keep it up you statist bastards and you are going to find out the truth the hard way.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/19/school-is-out-my-kids-are-to-be-given-to-me-dad-arrested-after-objecting-when-school-says-he-must-wait-to-take-his-children-home/
That's fooking ridiculous.
Chief Teabag Senator Ted Cruz's wife is a managing director at Goldman Sachs.
Multiple this little connection by 1000 to apply to all the Senate and Congress and their wives and kids and siblings and friends and you'll understand everything that is fucked up with our government.
Yeah......but it's just GS in Dallas. It's the branch in NY that's the evil part of GS.
In Dallas Goldman is an Angel feeding the poor, caring for the sick and dying, washing the lepers,doing God's work.
Yeah. Ugh.
Oh yeah a Teabag, how fucking creative of you!?! I'm no Cruz fan, but still, shut the fuck up with your stupidity.
Administration Official: Obamacare Payment Systems Still Need to Be Built
The article was from the Washington Post obviously given the local info. Drudge picked up the Stl Post version for some reason; do they even have DC beat reporters? The WP version has pictures of the miscreants to add extra color.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/capital-gains-spending-on-contracts-and-lobbying-propels-a-wave-of-new-wealth-in-d-c/2013/11/17/6bd938aa-3c25-11e3-a94f-b58017bfee6c_story.html
I'm sure Drudge didn't want to give WaPo the page views. An idea I support wholeheartedly.
I make a point of not clicking on WaPo, NYT, HuffPo, or Daily Beast links. Fuck them.
I hope to live to see the day where the District of Criminals or if you prefer Mordor on the Potomoc is a ghost town in which the only industry there will be tours mocking that there were once people who believed that government was a force for good.
I doubt you will. Government is simply The Gang That Won and established its powerbase to use Force and Violence tro get you to pay homage and protection
My ex-wife's baby sister started off as a DC lawyer fresh out of law school, $500k salary, ... not fucking bad for a kid, oh that was ten years ago ( that salary ).
When you can print money for free, and everybody accommodates QE the sky is the limit for windfall.
Soon everybody with 500 mile radius of WASH-DC will be a billionaire. ( sort of like being a trillion-aire in Zimbabwe )
Sorry to say this bud but sounds like you married the wrong bitch and may never realise being a TrillionZaire just a BillionZaire.
So long as some people you know "win" you too think you can win just enough for the kids to win.
That was after all the American dream. Only when the realization arises that your kids won't win either then you begin to feel like a raisin in the sun.
It all started with this nazi snake king and the most heinous crime ever committed in America.
This was the coup-de-ta that began it all..the mighty march to the fall.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYmombA4WwE
Let us all remember the last real President the USA had as we come to the 50th anniversary of his murder. Since then, thay have all been bankster puppets kow-towing to the money-god agendas.
No....... the YouTube version of Dark Legacy is incomplete and not the same as the full version on Netflix and Amazon.
Please everyone, do yourself a favor and watch the full version of Dark Legacy.
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/70128268
It seems to be a test that we, as a society and as souls, are failing miserably. When faced with a choice between adversity and corruption we choose corruption. Yes, we are being tempted, but that is the role of the adversary, to test us. People are not listening to their inner self, which tells them the truth.
Hopefully it is not the final exam.
You give our existence way too much credit. We're really not much more than bacteria with faces...
There is a CHICKEN OR THE EGG question here. I would suggest there would not be cronyism or not much of it if taxation, regulation and litigation weren't going THRU THE ROOF! Biz needs no relief from fair taxes, regs and courts. Right?
So, the state of cronyism is almost entirely a function of the out of control size of government and the control big gov always tries to exert over the free market. I would further suggest that ourlife-long pols have set up this system to enrich themselves.
Notice that along with cronyism, we have an unhelthy lack of biz failures and subsequent replacement with the new and efficient. It's insidious.
The power of the state always relies ultimately on the muzzle of a gun.
Mao had that one right :-(
"control big gov always tries to exert over the free market"
what 'free market'?
" In a genuine free market defined by heightened competition..."
And do you know what generally happens in competition, when the stakes are high enough ? Very often the competitors tend to rig the game for their own benefit, one way or another .
"Sorry these aren’t “entrepreneurs,” they are parasitic opportunists."
Allow me to tell you a story : "Once upon a time, a guy had a great idea to make money . Being an entrepreneur, he started a business . After some years, his business had succeeded beyond expectations . He had made friends among his peer group and he had made friends among people in high places .
In the end he had become a very wealthy, successful entrepreneur, and, ... a very crony capitalist . In other words, he had become a parasitic opportunists ."
So in other words you support; FORWARD. Hump...
" So in other words you support ... "
No, no .
I'm simply expressing the fact that we generally try to put forward solutions, without even realizing that they probably contain the seeds of subsequent corruptions .
You should look up either 'tautology' or 'begging the question', as your posts contain both. "Entrepeneurs are crony capitalists because entrepeneurs always become crony capitalists" is not very convincing, absent, say, evidence, examples, and elucidation.
" "Entrepeneurs are crony capitalists because entrepeneurs always become crony capitalists" "
After rereading my comments, I definitely can confirm : that's not what I wrote or implied .
I simply wrote about some dynamic social process and, for all I know, a probably relatively common one .
Now if you really can't find some "evidence", "examples" , that probably means we don't live on the same planet .
OK, this is what you wrote:
Allow me to tell you a story : "Once upon a time, a guy had a great idea to make money . Being an entrepreneur, he started a business . After some years, his business had succeeded beyond expectations . He had made friends among his peer group and he had made friends among people in high places .
In the end he had become a very wealthy, successful entrepreneur, and, ... a very crony capitalist . In other words, he had become a parasitic opportunists ."
Now, there are only two ways to interpret these sentences: 1) you are giving a single example of an entrepeneur becoming a 'parasitic opportunist', or 2) you are implying that all entrepeneurs become parasitic opportunistics. There is no other way to interpret this.You don't add any data to refine or narrow your story, which either means you're using it as an analogy to the general case, or as an example of a (meaning one, as in "Fred Quimby") specific case. Then, in your follow up, you add this little gem:
for all I know, a probably relatively common one .
The middle road of "well, it happens to some guys" is pointless. Yes, some of us grow up to be thieves, and some remain honest. What does that have to do with being an entrepeneur? And, so, thanks for playing, but one instance of anything doesn't mean a thing, and you explicitly ("for all I know") deny any knowledge (expertly combined with double weasel words of 'probably' and 'relatively' - well done!; are you a politician?) of how common/uncommon it is. One Toronto mayor smoked crack. Does that mean all mayors, or even all Toronto mayors, are crackheads?
Thanks for playing.
Oh, and the examples and evidence thing? That's where you would say (e.g.) that in a random sample of 5,000 entrepeneurs, x% went on to fit the definition of 'crony capitalist', which you provide none of. Hence you're just blowing hot air, and not adding anything to a debate.
" Now, there are only two ways to interpret these sentences:
1) you are giving a single example of an entrepeneur becoming a 'parasitic opportunist', or 2) you are implying that all entrepeneurs become parasitic opportunistics. There is no other way to interpret this. "
And what about 3): something between "single" and "all" ?
Why did John Dalberg-Acton write this :
"Power tends to corrupt, .... " ?
Did he think that power corrupts only in some exceptional cases, ... did he express the fact that power always corrupts to some precisely defined point ( if yes, what is the meaning of "tends" )?
" Yes, some of us grow up to be thieves, and some remain honest. "
If I understand correctly "grow up to be thieves", I think this sentence may explain the difference(s) about how we perceive the world .
Sometime ago, watching a tv broadcast about the psychology of Hitler, I heard an historian saying that "Hitler didn't fall from the sky" .
What he meant by that, was that you probably can't speak of Hitler without speaking of the evolution of the world at that time, and without speaking of the way people saw him.
Hitler was not an "immutable isolated island" , he was a living being constantly evolving in a constantly evolving situation . And so are we . We are not only DNA. Our history and environment play a major role in the expression of that DNA ..
The "parasitic opportunists", "crony capitalists" are no exception .
You can also think about the first stone . It's often difficult to cast the first stone . But after the first one has been thrown, the others follow very rapidly (exponentially ?) . " oh yes sir, ... but I did it because I saw the others do it ".
We are fully equipped with some kind of hardware called mirror neurons . Even though there is still a lot of work to do before we know "all" the implications of these, that could help explain some of our (not always respectable) behaviours .
" expertly combined with double weasel words of 'probably' and 'relatively' - well done! "
Thanks. Glad you appreciated .
Yes I live in a complex, dynamic world full of uncertainty, and full of possibilities I can't quantify . And I have never been able to satisfyingly express the moving "reality" with "static thinking" words (and for all I can see around me, I'm definitely not an exception) . And words like 'probably' and 'relatively' , as frustrating as they can be (particularly when they follow each other in the same sentence), are sometimes the best way I can think of to express that fact .
These industrialists and the following very large investors (Oligarchs) are evily,(not true just capitalistic), selective in that they select without deviation from anticipated larger wealth creation and survivability! That's history and it will be the future until the entire human civilization changes by slow evolution if ever. America was the Oligarchs darling from the middle 1800's through the 1960's. In the 1970's America began a path toward Socialism and far more powerful Central Government (Good Debate). The bottom line is now we are at the line of complete failure. We have an economy that's failed and a Central Government that has become "All powerful" subjecting the States to restrictions that prevent all large business from taking any positive role.
Money made from American named Corporations now use bermuda Re-Insurance programs to reduce tax treatment to 5% before re-introducing foreign profits. No real MFG is being brought here. The lies of 7+% unemployment stretch all or any remaining credibility!
The sad fact is this could all be turned around in Months! It requires action primarily of releasing control not more!We could have a thriving economy in a year! hedgemastemb.blogspot.com
Page through until you come to "America's Economic Future" Read it!
if the people in the area inside the beltway were to disappear at noon tomorrow.... the world would be a better place.
Why are US politicians exempt from insider dealing punishment?
Cuz they write the rules.
Well, they're really only exempt from OFFICIAL insider-dealing punishment...
Boeing, the nation's largest exporter, recently signed 777X deals totaling just over $100 billion, and production will occur over 5 to 7 YEARS.
The Fed is pumping $85 billion into the system each MONTH.
The people closest to the pump (DC and NYC) are winners; the rest of us lose.
Exports funded like car loans - 0% over 500 years plus Cash in Hand to Saudi Princes and Israeli generals
Yeah-I picture it as the NYC media-DC politicians cluster f-ck.
DC might as well be Abuja. It is brilliant how the US population was processed by TV and junk food to be as docile as the hogs in a meat-packing facility. How many jobs are they holding down to keep the White Collar Elite in caviar and hookers ?
This is so dystopian but people continue to be conned by puppets like Bill Clinton or Obama thinking they are the antidote to Cheney. The Defence Budget shows how skewed US politics is simply because 300 million Americans do not need 50% global defence spending to feel safe in their beds........
A great book on this subject is righfully titled "Extortion" by Paul Schweitzer.
Not only does the admin in the form of eric "the red" holder shake-down businesses, but members of CONgress of BOTH parties extract "campaign funds" with the ol' iron fist in the velvet glove approach.
This is NOT the gov't George Washington and the Founders had in mind.
Thanks for the link. Always wondered how they cleared out their campaign war chests.
All you have to ask is where is Jon Corzine?
No, the question should be who is John Galt?
Well written......
I love for articles that paint the true picture....rampant corporate greed and political cronyism)...without the Republican/Democrat/I hate Obama distractions.
ALL (at least most) of the politicans oh side of the aisle, are the problem.
From the "Tao Te Ching" (57)
The more laws and restrictions there are,
The poorer people become.
The sharper men's weapons,
The more trouble in the land.
The more ingenious and clever men are,
The more strange things happen.
The more rules and regulations,
The more thieves and robbers.
Plus ca change, as some of us here in the Great White North like to say..
Great post ...what's new
The root cause is the 16th and 17th Amendments.
The only direct taxes constitutionally permitted are to be apportioned among the States.
Consider that if the the same entity writing the checks to DC (the States) also is the entity competing to get the money back from DC, the "money-go-round" would come to a screeching halt. As it is, we write the checks, then encourage the pols and bureaucrats to get some or all of the money back, which encourages the pols to take more of our money so they can bring more back home; the food which grows the federal beast. The feds grow in power, and we lose billions paying grant writers and lobbyists to get our money back.
If the State writes the check and has representation in Congress, it won't take long for them to realize it best to keep the money in the State to begin with.
For my future websites, I've traveled over much of the Wash, D.C. area taking pictures and kind of taking a crash course about the various areas in and around Wash, D.C. These are not small law firms. These are large law firms housed in big expensive buildings in the heart of D.C.; with a breadth of talent. There ARE a lot of lawyers in D.C.; and they make a lot of money. There are so many large heavy structures you would think the whole city would sink. Still from my readings, the big money's in NYC.