There are 37 comments.

1. Inactive
   James Salerno

   @JamesSalerno

   11:04 AM EST ⋅ Dec 1, 2022

   Get rid of corporate taxes. You already tax individuals (constitutionally, the only tax revenue the federal government is entitled to is from tariffs). Large corporations can absorb taxation and eliminate competition by lobbying and raising the barrier of entry.

   No monopoly exists without government. Anti-trust laws also prevent competition because they allow the government to pick winners and losers. There’s over a centurys worth of evidence of this.

   Repeal the Pendleton Act. There’s nothing wrong with “kitchen cabinets.” You don’t like who’s in civil service positions? Vote in a new administration and clean them out. Government is supposed to have four branches: executive, judicial, legislative and most importantly, the states. Civil Service reform added an unnecessary branch. A fifth leg to the table that makes it wobbly and uneven.

   And finally, capitalism is not an ism. Its enemies named it that. Isms are ideologies, capitalism is just the natural state of things. Terms like crony capitalism are necessary in the colloquial, but cloud the issue for the uneducated.

2. Member
   Steven Seward

   @StevenSeward

   1:10 PM EST ⋅ Dec 1, 2022

   James Salerno (View Comment):

   Get rid of corporate taxes. You already tax individuals (constitutionally, the only tax revenue the federal government is entitled to is from tariffs). Large corporations can absorb taxation and eliminate competition by lobbying and raising the barrier of entry.

   No monopoly exists without government. Anti-trust laws also prevent competition because they allow the government to pick winners and losers. There’s over a centurys worth of evidence of this.

   Repeal the Pendleton Act. There’s nothing wrong with “kitchen cabinets.” You don’t like who’s in civil service positions? Vote in a new administration and clean them out. Government is supposed to have four branches: executive, judicial, legislative and most importantly, the states. Civil Service reform added an unnecessary branch. A fifth leg to the table that makes it wobbly and uneven.

   And finally, capitalism is not an ism. Its enemies named it that. Isms are ideologies, capitalism is just the natural state of things. Terms like crony capitalism are necessary in the colloquial, but cloud the issue for the uneducated.

   Agree with the whole of what you said.  The capitalism label has irked me too.  Capitalism is just what naturally occurs economically between individuals if there is no intervening force.

3. Coolidge
   CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill

   @CarolJoy

   2:23 PM EST ⋅ Dec 1, 2022

   Rodin (View Comment):

   Unsk (View Comment):

   Huge Issue.

   The large Woke Corporations which have been financed by the FED are set to control virtually everything. They are strongly aligned with the World Economic Forum and are the heft behind the Great Reset. If such behavior is allowed to continue it will be the end of our Constitutional Republic. Plain and Simple. Apple is just the tip of the Iceberg. With the coming advent of the FED’s ‘programable dollars” or digital currency, which Biden has already signed an Executive Order to push through, our Woke government will have the means to surveil and control virtually every American.

   I favor a corporate tax rate of upwards of 90% on all Corporations, and a 90% plus income tax those responsible in and out of government for such decisions within those corporations that censor the American people and those corporations who discriminate against the religious, white people and gun owners as well as anyone involved with a digital currency or requiring the VAX. While one may argue that it is the legal right of Corporations to do such things, it is the legal right of the American People in the public interest to discourage such behavior with a huge tax. Just like the tax on alcohol or cigarettes which discourages their use, but this issue is far, far more consequential to the American People.

   While I am sympathetic to your anger, the taxation notion is problematic as corporations don’t pay taxes — their customers and shareholders do. But maybe that was your idea — tax them out of existence.

   I share the sympathy you express but I am glad that you pointed out who it is who actually  pays the corporate taxes.

   And of course, since monopolies now control almost every aspect of our lives, should Amazon, major gas and fuel suppliers, CostCo, Home Depot, and other “totally essential businesses” go down due to exorbitant taxation policies, it will be the average American who will have no way to affordably putting food on the table, or be able to have heat and AC in their home, or gas in the auto needed to commute to work.

    

4. Coolidge
   DonG (CAGW is a Scam)

   @DonG

   3:12 PM EST ⋅ Dec 1, 2022

   Rodin (View Comment):

   Quietpi (View Comment):

   I object strenuously to the mere title, “crony capitalism.” Cronyism it is, certainly. Capitalism it just as certainly is NOT.

   I agree with the proposition that crony capitalism is not Adam Smith’s formulation of free markets, that Marx (possibly copying someone else) labeled as capitalism. But it is a losing proposition in the public square to try and distinguish between free markets and capitalism. There is more hope in identifying crony capitalism as a counterfeit of free markets.

   There is the term “crony corporatism”.   It is more accurate.

5. Inactive
   Stina

   @CM

   6:07 PM EST ⋅ Dec 1, 2022

   I do not think capitalism is the default system. I think capitalism is the system the evolved from the rise of banking.

6. Coolidge
   Red Herring

   @EHerring

   8:18 AM EST ⋅ Dec 2, 2022

   CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

   Rodin (View Comment):

   Unsk (View Comment):

   Huge Issue.

   The large Woke Corporations which have been financed by the FED are set to control virtually everything. They are strongly aligned with the World Economic Forum and are the heft behind the Great Reset. If such behavior is allowed to continue it will be the end of our Constitutional Republic. Plain and Simple. Apple is just the tip of the Iceberg. With the coming advent of the FED’s ‘programable dollars” or digital currency, which Biden has already signed an Executive Order to push through, our Woke government will have the means to surveil and control virtually every American.

   I favor a corporate tax rate of upwards of 90% on all Corporations, and a 90% plus income tax those responsible in and out of government for such decisions within those corporations that censor the American people and those corporations who discriminate against the religious, white people and gun owners as well as anyone involved with a digital currency or requiring the VAX. While one may argue that it is the legal right of Corporations to do such things, it is the legal right of the American People in the public interest to discourage such behavior with a huge tax. Just like the tax on alcohol or cigarettes which discourages their use, but this issue is far, far more consequential to the American People.

   While I am sympathetic to your anger, the taxation notion is problematic as corporations don’t pay taxes — their customers and shareholders do. But maybe that was your idea — tax them out of existence.

   I share the sympathy you express but I am glad that you pointed out who it is who actually pays the corporate taxes.

   And of course, since monopolies now control almost every aspect of our lives, should Amazon, major gas and fuel suppliers, CostCo, Home Depot, and other “totally essential businesses” go down due to exorbitant taxation policies, it will be the average American who will have no way to affordably putting food on the table, or be able to have heat and AC in their home, or gas in the auto needed to commute to work.

    

   They are only monopolies because we choose to shop there.

7. Member
   The Reticulator

   @TheReticulator

   6:43 PM EST ⋅ Dec 2, 2022

   James Salerno (View Comment):

   Get rid of corporate taxes. You already tax individuals (constitutionally, the only tax revenue the federal government is entitled to is from tariffs). Large corporations can absorb taxation and eliminate competition by lobbying and raising the barrier of entry.

   No monopoly exists without government. Anti-trust laws also prevent competition because they allow the government to pick winners and losers. There’s over a centurys worth of evidence of this.

   Repeal the Pendleton Act. There’s nothing wrong with “kitchen cabinets.” You don’t like who’s in civil service positions? Vote in a new administration and clean them out. Government is supposed to have four branches: executive, judicial, legislative and most importantly, the states. Civil Service reform added an unnecessary branch. A fifth leg to the table that makes it wobbly and uneven.

   And finally, capitalism is not an ism. Its enemies named it that. Isms are ideologies, capitalism is just the natural state of things. Terms like crony capitalism are necessary in the colloquial, but cloud the issue for the uneducated.

   While you’re at it, repeal gravity. And eliminate government income.  And bring back the 50s. 

   Also, I don’t pay any income taxes, because I pass the cost of taxes on to retailers and others in the form of buying less goods and services from them.