Conservative Economic Answers Will Solve "Crony Capitalism"

[slickcat79]

At least, that's Chris Jeub's opinion:

jeubfamily.com/2011/09/15/crony-capitalism-isnt-freedom/

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Ryan argues that Washington has the uncanny habit of picking and choosing industries rather than letting free markets drive them. Politicians decide what businesses are “too big to fail†(i.e. which do we financially save from going broke). They also decide which industries are worth forcing success (like wind mill farms that generate little energy but are, in politician's minds, "the future").

Yes, because clearly the Cape Wind project is a better example of crony capitalism than Halliburton or AIG Also, uncanny: I don't think it means what you think it means.

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Our family business trains speakers and debaters in how to "think, speak and persuade" Washington doesn't care about underwriting such nonsense. Mention God and you're stripped of any financial advantage the government would grant you.

I really have no idea what he's getting at here. Every major politician mentions god. It's nearly impossible to get elected without it. Churches have tremendous financial advantages in their tax-free status. I'm guessing Jeub simply thinks the government doesn't provide enough advantages for his super speshul family business.

I don't think he's wrong that cronyism is a huge problem for the government, but I have no idea how "conservative answers" are going to solve that.

[Sola]

Have you read the comments?

DavidS put:

Much of what Ryan said was good, but not radical enough.

Here's my take on a couple of the talking points:

"Lower the tax rate ... to 25%"

- How about 0%? I'm not sure I trust anyone in the Govt to spend any of the money God has give me stewardship over.

"If we want a prosperous economy, we need a good tax policy"

- Isn't that an oxymoron - a good tax policy? How about a tax abolition to make for a prosperous economy? I would say that an economy's stability and prosperity are inversely proportional to the amount of taxes stolen.

"Burn the tax code and start over."

- He was on the right track until the last 3 words. Just burn it and scatter the ashes.

The one suggestion I was looking for, but didn't see was the abolition

of the income tax. The underlying assumption of the income tax is that

the State owns all your money and earning power, but they'll let you

keep some of it.

(http://blog.mises.org/17058/ep...

My view - taxation is theft. Even if I approve of a given tax, it is still theft to the one who doesn't approve.

Really? 0% taxes?

[JesusFightClub]

It works great in Somalia. Hang on...

[dawn9476]

Paul Ryan is a Koch Brother stooge. He is the poster child for Crony Capitalism.

ETA: Actually I take that back. He is more a Wall Street stooge. They are his top donors.

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/ ... 357&type=I

[fundyfunland]

It works great in Somalia. Hang on...

:clap: :character-beavisbutthead: Well said!

[Witsec1]

Since when does El Jeub pay any federal taxes at all? He's self-employed, so he doesn't get Social Security or Medicare deducted from his paycheck. Theoretically, he pays the Self-Employment tax to make up for that, but with his income level (around $40,000, according to him) and his deductions, I guaran-damn-tee he ain't payin' it. Instead he's getting around $5,000/year from the Earned Income Credit- not a refund of taxes he paid, but actual! free! money! from the government. What a sweet deal! He gets to pretend that the reason his business is in the toilet is due to government restrictions and unfair taxation, all the while raking in other people's tax money.

On second thought, maybe he does really understand how the big boys do capitalism...

[desertvixen]

Or they could see how it works in Iraq, where the government budget varies based on the price of oil.

The whole time I was over there, we kept seeing things that made me so damn thankful to have been born in a country where we actually give a damn about stuff like paved roads and sewer systems. Most of us, anyway...

[slickcat79]

Have you read the comments?

DavidS put:

Really? 0% taxes?

I've heard a number of people IRL say things like that. Maybe not quite to 0%, but that cutting taxes would make businesses so much more able to expand and hire more people and pass on their savings in the form of higher wages/more benefits for their employees. I've not been glued to the federal tax code over the last couple of years, but I'm pretty sure most corporate taxes have not gone up. Personal income tax hasn't. What would be the point in a recession? Yet unemployment is rampant. My company cut some 40% of its employees, and cut salaries from 5-30% for everyone who was left. People didn't quit because they were making less money; most of us considered ourselves lucky to have jobs when so many other people didn't. They switched insurance companies and we had to start paying more for certain benefits, and still people did it. The husband of one of my co-workers was laid off, and eventually got another job but had to take a pay cut of almost $20K. He was still happy to have a job, any job. Lack of tax obligation hasn't done much to improve unemployment or working conditions in a crap economy.

Even in a healthy economy, corporations don't have that much incentive to provide sweeping improvements to employees. They're in business to make a profit after all. I imagine a CEO who is given an extra 10% "profit" in the form of tax breaks; he has the option to invest that in his employees so that they will work "happier", or pass it on to his investors so that they will give him more money. Certainly he may give certain raises and bonuses to his employees, but he'll only give enough so that they can stay employed and productive. A number of companies were given massive boosts from the wall street bailout, and their leadership chose to lay off huge numbers of lower level employees while giving themselves bonuses. I may not always trust the government to run things effectively, but giving free reign to big business is not a good solution.

[VintageJen1984]

For all this 0% tax dude's talk of God I guess he's having trouble "rendering unto Caesar". Perhaps that only applies "when in Rome"?