Robber baron voodoo economics

With the return to life of the Free Agency Rules blog, it appears that I am once again to enter into a discussion I enjoy, but whose parameters reflect a false dichotomy. The question is whether anything that is not pure eat-the-poor Manchester capitalism is by default socialism, and whether the curent regime is more faithful to the spirit of laissez-faire than is the Democratic alternative.

My answer to the first assumption is simply that in a pure capitalist system, as historical experience suggests, an economy will inevitably wind up with price-gouging oligopolies, such as our current oil industry, health care industry, credit industry and military-industrial complex. To have a functioning capitalist system, you need the hand of the government on the scales to protect consumers and citizens. Neither you nor I will ever equal the agenda-setting and lobbying muscle of big business as it preys on our dollars. Money talks, and nobody has as much of it as does Exxon with its cash-on-hand pile of $40 billion. You do the math as you gas up. Abstract theory of small government becomes sterile in the real world where you are arrayed against behemoths out to make as much profit from you as they can by any means necessary.

The question of the supposed faithfulness of the chimperial junta to market principles is one I can only regard with amused disbelief. Read this book. Read it.

Multi-billion dollar no-bid contracts are not something that appears in the free market. Outlawing the importation of drugs by consumers - but not by pharma giants looking for cheaper labor overseas - isn't capitalism, it's a money grab of historic proportions. Hundreds of billions in subsidies to big business every year - subsidies unavailable to small busiiness - are not capitalist. Having draconian bankruptcy laws for citizens and small businesses, but not for any corporation with over a million dollars in annual revenue, is not capitalist - it's a disgrace. Locking consumers into contracts that can be changed by companies at will is not capitalist. Letting companies weasel out of their contractual pension obligations isn't capitalist, either, nor is the idea that credit card companies can raise your rates at will, to 300% per annum - unless contractual surety is also a socialist concept. Banning stem cell research is not the epitome of the free market, either - nor is the regulatory banning of drugs consumers want OTC, like emergency contraception.

This country does not have a capitalist system any more. We have a system whose sole objective is to fleece you, the consumer, citizen and taxpayer. Call it what it is, robber baron voodoo economics.