John and Doug,
John wrote:
Just
note that article I sent about the South Sea
Bubble. Shortly after they got their stamp of approval
from the King,
they lobbied to cripple the competition by forbidding
any stock to be traded
unless the corporation had a charter from the King.
That tactic –
enlisting an established
power of force to limit competition – seems to be
repeated throughout
history when any faction (corporate, NGO, political
crusade, populist movement …)
becomes strong enough to enlist the contemporary form of
force (government,
king, dictator, politician, …). By eliminating
competition, the
ascendant group makes their position more secure.
If this one tactic
could be nullified,
i.e. if ascendant groups could be prevented from
complete dominance, then the
remaining individuals could opt out of any proposed plan
to deny them their
equal justice.
Does anyone have
suggestions on how to
nullify the ability of the top to compel the remainder
into their plan? That
is what Friedman’s “Power to Choose” is actually about.
Forget the politics he espouses and just consider the
opt-out tactic. If that
could be put into an amendment to the constitution, and
enforced in nearly every
case, it would put a stop to lots of this hijacking of
public interest and
public funds in the service of private interests.
-Rich
Sincerely,
Rich Cooper
EnglishLogicKernel.com
Rich AT
EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
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Doug,
> John
emphasizes that lobbyists enhance the perceived
self-interest of
> their corporations by writing (laws and)
regulations to harm their
> competition.
Just note
that article I sent about the South Sea Bubble. Shortly
after they got
their stamp of approval from the King, they lobbied to
cripple the competition
by forbidding any stock to be traded unless the
corporation had a charter from
the King.
Corporations
have been doing that even before Adam Smith was born.
Those are the kinds
of shenanigans that destroy the efficacy of the
"invisible
hand". When the South Sea Bubble burst, the difficulty
of forming
new businesses prolonged the disastrous effects.
Big
business is the natural enemy of small business.
Government has a
tendency to take the side of big business because they
give bigger
"campaign contributions". But when you weaken the
elected
government, there are no barriers of any kind to stop
big businesses from
becoming the worst imaginable kind of de facto
government.
Have you
ever heard of the company towns run by mining
corporations in the 19th
century? Just listen to the song "16 Tons". That is
called laissez faire. That is why the Republicans
passed the anti-trust
laws.
John