BoatShoes;510045 wrote:Forget about big government for a second...Let's forget about the possible effectiveness of a government redistributing money earned in the private sector...
You claim that the reason for such disproportionate wealth distribution is because of too much government interference already and that a freer market will naturally distribute wealth more in line with the ideal worlds imagined by those in the study.
How can I forget about big government when that was the premise of my argument? That is why you see the terms central, federal, bloated and bureaucracy in my descriptions of things that need to change in government. No offense Boat but in the very next sentence you brought my point back in by pointing out my claim that too much government is the problem. I am not sure how I can support my claims by forgetting about big government. Maybe I am misunderstanding what your are trying to say. Easily done on these types of forums.
When I am talking about an economic system that is more free and competitive I am not advocating an economic system with little or no rules. I know full well the depravity of of some men to manipulate the system and exploit others. I am advocating a decentralized government role in actively policing those rules. The feds have a role to set
basic rules to ensure fair commerce exists in and between all the states.
From there leave it to the states and local governments to regulate as they wish. After all the people that live, work, and raise their children in a given part of this country care far more about maintaining their local environment and way of life than some dumb ass federal beaurocrat behind a desk in DC with a lobbyist of a major corporation kissing his ass and treating him like royalty.
I think that competition between governments and private entities a better level of active regulation will occur. One that better fits the needs of the people and the needs of business.
BoatShoes;510045 wrote:What evidence do you have for this belief?
A concentration of power and money in one place will by nature attract immoral and corrupt individuals. Though these individuals represent a small minority in our society, when power and money is concentrated in one place they will gravitate there. If power and influence fall into their hands they now gain it over many. I have said this before many times.
As I noted in my post an article I read a while back. The parasites are descending on Washington like a swarm of locusts. The will destroy this nations wealth and concentrate it into the hands of a few if we don't start dispersing a little power. Spread these locusts out and we can take them out. I think the author nails it on the head.
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5073
Money spent in Washington is taken from the people who produced it all over America. Washington produces little real value on its own. National defense and courts are essential to our freedom and prosperity, but that's a small part of what the federal government does these days. Most federal activity involves taking money from some people, giving it to others and keeping a big chunk as a transaction fee.
Every business and interest group in society has an office in Washington devoted to getting some of the $2.5 trillion federal budget for itself: senior citizens, farmers, veterans, teachers, social workers, oil companies, labor unions — you name it.
Walk down K Street, the heart of Washington's lobbying industry, and look at the directory in any office building. They're full of lobbyists and associations that are in Washington, for one reason: because, as Willie Sutton said about why he robbed banks, "That's where the money is."
It's not just money that's being sucked into Washington. It's human talent, the most valuable productive asset of all. Too much of the talent at America's most dynamic companies is now diverted from productive activity to either getting corporate welfare from Congress or protecting the company from political predation.
Slow economic growth can be blamed in large measure on just this process — the expansion of the parasite economy into the productive economy. The number of corporations with Washington offices increased 10-fold between 1961 and 1982. The number of people lobbying in Washington doubled in the late 1970s — and it has doubled again just since 2000. The number of lawyers per million Americans stayed the same from 1870 to 1970, then more than doubled in just 20 years. The Federal Register, where new regulations are printed, now prints a record 75,000 pages a year.
As the parasite economy grows, taxing some people and doling out favors to others, everybody gets sucked in. Even if you don't want a government subsidy, you need a lobbyist to protect you from being taxed and regulated by the other groups and their lobbyists.
BoatShoes;510045 wrote:The ideas of Milton Friedman and the like swept through our politics and we deregulated the financial markets, telecommunications, lowered marginal rates and capital gains rates to their lowest ever; etc. etc.....essentially freeing up the markets in dramatic ways and power and wealth has concentrated to levels it hasn't since the great depression.
I am arguing decentralization and active regulation when necessary to occur in a competitive and freer manner. At the state and local level. The feds play limited and basic role. The feds currently hold the cards. As I believe the article I cited shows the lobbyists know were they need to be. They know where the power is at.
