Dylan Ratigan makes an excellent point in this segment from his MSNBC show Morning Meeting:
It’s a point I’ve made before, and it’s really quite simple.
There’s a distinct difference between the free market and the state-aided corporate capitalism that we live with today. When businessmen use the state to protect themselves from competition, or from their own wrongdoing, that’s not free market capitalism. When they pay lobbyists to get the Federal Government to subsidize them, whether directly or indirectly, that’s not free-market captialism. When they help write the laws that they then use to hamper competition, that’s not free-market capitalism.
Many on the right make the mistake of thinking that believing in capitalism means that you’re obligated to defend the actions of the capitalists, but when those actions involve using the state to evade the discipline of the market, you’re no longer defending the market, you’re helping to destroy it.
To use an Atlas Shrugged
October 8th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Agree totally, which is one of the reasons I like referring to open markets being the driver of Capitalism rather than using the free markets. When anyone or anything is subsidized they become part of a closed system that others not privileged with support are not free to join or compete sucessfully in.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
[...] or business objectives. There is a big difference between capitalism and corporatism (or cronyism). As Doug puts it: There’s a distinct difference between the free market and the state-aided corporate capitalism [...]
October 8th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
[...] the Libertarians and Socialists Agree Jump to Comments Doug Mataconis explains the huge difference between free enterprise and government-supported capitalism: There’s a distinct difference [...]