Dear John,
Peter has lost patience with the “Self Interest
Ontology” thread, so it looks like I have no more opportunity to discuss
this at length.
But for this last post, please see my response below,
-Rich
Sincerely,
Rich Cooper
EnglishLogicKernel.com
Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
9 4 9 \ 5 2 5 - 5 7 1 2
JFS
>> Anybody who has a
small business knows that the
>> biggest enemy of
small business is*not* the
>> government.
It's big business. The regulations
>> that hurt small
business were *not* written by
>> government, they
were written by lobbyists for big
>> business who want
to stamp out the competition.
RC
> I (a small business
owner for decades) disagree.
> The government is
every bit as involved in the
> corporate-government
partnership.
But you're confusing cause
& effect. The enemy of small business is big business. If you weaken
the government, there will be a power vacuum.
I disagree; at this time
in history, it is the collusion of big businesses (especially NGOs and financial
businesses at this time) with government that is the enemy of small
business. Most small businesses provide products and services to big
businesses, which are their customers and friends in those markets. Its
when big business AND government get together to “regulate” markets
for the benefit of big businesses in return for political support for the
government elected class that small business is regulated or legislated out of
economic existence.
Both factions come into
play to do the harm. Both are equally the cause, and both must be
prevented from doing further harm if there is a way to do so, for our middle
class citizens to continue to do well.
And guess who will step in
to fill that vacuum. It will not be small business, and it will not be
free-spirited libertarians. As the Republicans Teddy Roosevelt and
William Howard Taft said, it will be "the Malefactors of Great
Wealth".
Teddy was right, but that
is why the antitrust laws were passed way back when. Unfortunately, they
are not enforced today, with the government having grown vastly larger since
then. The “too big to fail” mantra IMHO means that any
organization too big to fail should be broken down into smaller entities that
can suffer consequences. Otherwise there is no free market. That is
what the original antitrust laws were designed to do, but they are no longer
effective today.
Remember that it was the
Republican Party that passed the anti-trust laws, and the two most vigorous
enforcers of those laws were the Republicans TR & WHT. That was when
the Republican Party was on the side of small business.
John
Verbally, they still
are. But when you look at the legislation, for both parties, it works out
in favor of limiting competition so that only the big businesses have economic
footing to prosper. It isn’t stated that way of course, but look at
the effects of legislation on the population of small businesses versus changes
in legislation. Consistently, though not in every case, small businesses
are hurt by legislation.
-Rich