There has been a lot said about ‘crony’ capitalism of late. The problem with it is that the media’s narrative is never really entirely accurate (which is expected) where they tend to not present the entirety of the problem. I find it fascinating that people are actually still listening to any major news network or reading any major news piece out there. I’ve given that up, for the most part, and I’m much happier and still am probably just as informed as anyone else. Except for celebrity pulp bullcrap, which I hardly care about.
So really, when you hear the term ‘crony’ capitalism, get ready for the greedy corporation to be blamed for the entirety of the problem. Ever since the bank failures, the auto failures, and now the petroleum failures, you’ll hear all about how the people who the run the corporations are incompetent and deserve some kind of lynching.
It’s unfortunate, however, that this is only half of the problem with ‘crony’ capitalism that many people, both in the old and new media, fail to point out. The other half, the half that is often ignored by Republican and Democrat pundits alike, is that the politicians are just as responsible for the problem as much as the greedy, and somewhat parasitic, corporate entities are.
The government, you see, is not some benevolent cabal of angels sent to us by God to ensure our safety and security. It is merely a collection of sinners who have been given a mandate from the rest of us sinners to rule over us with monopolized force. I know, many of you Statists will claim that as long as good people are running things, everything will be fine. But both sides of the political spectrum have their own version of what is good and what is bad, neither of which usually follow any solid moral standard, and both sides give permanent jobs to their favored disciples. When you mix that together, you get a recipe for cutthroat office politics and sometimes downright crazy individuals overseeing our well-being.
As such, with government officials being nothing more than normal people, like you or me, but with more power, they are often given bribes and kickbacks for allowing corporations to engage in greedy practices. In some cases, it’s the politician that forces companies to give bribes and/or kickbacks. I’d say the latter happens much more often than the former since a politician is usually the ultimate Statist loser who couldn’t manage a McDonalds in a neighborhood of rich skinny people if his or her life depended on it. And those who are aware of just how much of a scumbag they are usually behave like robber barons with a moral crusade to get more money for themselves.
I wish I could offer another solution to the problem. But the fact is, no matter how limited a government is, there will always be this kind of problem. The minarchist solution would be to reduce government influence as much as possible and keep a close eye on those we put in power. The anarcho-capitalist solution is to eliminate government and rely on the rational behavior of human beings. Neither solution is all that great, but both are better than what we are doing now.
I’m no Utopian. I know that we will face problems like these until Jesus returns and sets things right or until the sun goes supernova and kills us hairless apes off (whichever you happen to believe in, of course). But it’s high time that all of us admit that it takes two to tango and ‘crony’ capitalism is nothing more than simply economic fascism or corporatism, which means that the government is at least equally to blame for whatever bad outcome such a system produces. So whenever you hear a politician talk about how the free market system failed, understand that he’s only covering his own butt for the failures he created in the first place. Like it or not, our fascist economic policy is to blame because that is the system we truly live under, not a free-market one.
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