[THE HILL] Blogger asking for comments about Paul's solution to crony-cap.

[BUSHLIED]

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-bl...199119-ron-paul-can-surge-against-newt-romney

Please provide some clear and concise answers to the crony-capitalism concerns raise by the author, Namely how would Ron Paul deal with it. Thanks. The first poster is trying to hit Paul on Earmarks..someone might want to address that too

 

[low preference guy]

Remove all regulations so that the corporations will stop writing them.

 

[sailingaway]

I said Ron would do whatever worked, then mentioned Rand's idea of contractually barring corporations who get govt contracts of above X amount from lobbying so taxpayers aren't funding corporations to lobby for more taxpayer money.

 

[Kuthreck]

Incentive Based Business

Crony-Capitalism starts with Washington picking winners and losers in the Private Sector. By removing incentives for business to lobby to Politicians for special treatment you lose the imbalance and desire. Even more so if you target lobbying (bribing) by making it ILLEGAL. The driving force should be the individual, the supreme court is also to blame when stating that "Corporations are People." How did his happen? Why?

$$$.

Big Money.

End the Incentive, Kill the Root, Destroy the Tree, and Business will flourish.

 

[KingNothing]

Scaling back government would do the trick. If you take away its power to pick winners and losers, and limit its ability to pilfer from Paul to line Peter's pockets, a lot of this would come to an end. That said, it's important to note a point that Ron Paul often raises -- we have to prosecute people who commit fraud and theft. If you lie, if you cheat, if you steal, you go to jail.

Further, if you pursue risky investments and they fail, you're on the hook. Not the American tax payer.

These things work wonderfully in concert together: allowing risk to fall on the proper people puts a natural check on greed. The moral hazards that have sprung up in recent times have put us in the mess we're now in.

 

[newbitech]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYx2g0wpjJs

talks about crony capitalism and mentions ows.

http://www.ronpaul.com/2011-09-12/r...onyism-and-support-right-to-work-legislation/


Also, Ron Paul needs to clarify his position on Unions. His plan to restore america explicitly attacks unions. Ron Paul should not jump on the union bashing bandwagon, and make it clear the difference between trade unions that operate voluntarily and trade unions who operate like the one in the article he mentioned. There is plenty of cronyism to go around in the unions, but this doesn't need to be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Let the weeds grow up with the crop, and come harvest time, separate the wheat from the chaff. Attacking collective bargaining and customary local wages in a full frontal assault ought to be tempered with some compassion and kindness towards people who have found a way to educate themselves, their industry (aka union, aka guild) without the need for going in to huge debt vis a vis "traditional" over priced institutional learning.

Simply put, trade unions with their OJT paid apprenticeship approach are a valid alternative to the path of an burdensome debt ridden 4 year college degree "education".

Tread softly here good Dr. Please be aware that trade Unions are more than bailed out execs at places like auto makers. Those folks working in those industries didn't have the benefit of hindsight when it came to the collapse, and many who benefited from that system didn't realize they were taking advantage of cronyism.

 

[arkana]

Crony Capitalism is simply the government being in bed with businesses. The businesses then influence the regulations that get passed so they:

a) don't do what their intended to
b) protect the big corporations from competition by making it too difficult to form start ups(more regulations help big companies in this regard because they can handle it, small companies don't have the resources or the money to wade through the red tape).
c) when big companies help get officials elected, they in turn help bail them out, help get them government contracts, tax loop holes etc.

Sans bail outs or 'crony capitalism' companies that screw up would go bankrupt. Because of that natural market tendency(to go bankrupt when you screw up), most companies make smart and calculated risks and don't try and screw their customers. However in crony capitalism you have protected big business that isn't worried about going belly up making crazy bets and screwing the public.

All of this thanks to our elected officials granting them protection. It's basically the good Ol' boy network using public money.

The Solution:

Simple. If the politicians followed the constitution, as they swore to their higher power they would, there would be zero crony capitalism. Corporations wouldn't dump as much money into political campaigns because politicians wouldn't be able to give them handouts. No bailouts, no pork barrel spending, no favoritism, no corporatism, no crony capitalism. Just follow the constitution and you solve a lot of problems.

 

[tremendoustie]

I said Ron would do whatever worked, then mentioned Rand's idea of contractually barring corporations who get govt contracts of above X amount from lobbying so taxpayers aren't funding corporations to lobby for more taxpayer money.

Now there's a regulation I could support.

 

[unknown]

Test the replies here first, lets tweak then submit.

I'm thinking something like:

"Ron Paul would not sign any bills which bail out the banks at the expense of taxpayers. He has also aggressively criticized the Fed's policy of trillion dollar bank bailouts which were completely unknown to the America people absent the partial audit."