Government vs Capitalism OR Crony Capitalism? What Can We Do About Greed?

A lot of people are talking about the Occupy Wall Street movement and we did publish an article about the OccupyLincoln movement this weekend.

One of the central themes one can detect within this movement regards “corporate greed”, and it started with a specific criticism of the corporate greed on Wall Street and its influences on politics. Some of the participants in these occupation groups say government is being run by corporations.

The participants in this movement charge that corporate influence should be heavily taxed, heavily regulated and banished entirely from the political process. Apparently, removal of corporate influence will solve all problems.

Some members of the Occupy movement are actually blaming capitalism and say it is a failed system.

Such philosophy is inherently flawed because it leaves out a huge factor – government and the politicians who run it.

In a 1979 appearance on the Phil Donahue show, economist Milton Friedman addressed this whole subject, articulating it better than, perhaps, anyone else before or since. (E-mail subscribers, click here to view the video.)

Capitalism is a system that properly acknowledges human nature. It is human nature to operate on self interest. It is our efforts to deny this essential reality on both sides of the political aisle that is what is ailing this country at present.

It’s time to “Occupy Reason”…

The comments by Milton Friedman were actually near the end of an appearance on Donahue’s show, which covers many fundamental issues about economics, government, and public policy. Linda and I highly recommend to readers that it be viewed in its entirety. For those interested, here is the appearance in its entirety, in chronological order:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

 

Stubborn_Facts

Shelli Dawdy is first and foremost the mother of three children whom she has taught at home via the classical method since removing her children from school in 2001. During her early years as a homeschool mother, she worked part-time as a freelance writer. Born and raised in the Iowa, Shelli and her husband moved to the state of South Dakota in 1997, attracted to its more limited government and friendly tax environment. In 2006, Shelli and her family relocated to Lincoln, Nebraska, when her husband’s employer offered a new position. She took a break from work and politics for a time, recognizing the need to focus solely on her childrens’ schooling with two now of high school age. Distressed by many things she was witnessing on the national political scene and disillusioned about the Republican Party, she decided to start writing again, this time online. Motivated to get involved with others at the grassroots level, she networked with activists on the social media tool, Twitter. She was involved in organizing the first tea party rallies inspired by Rick Santelli’s “rant” on CNBC in February 2009. Recognizing that activism should generate on the local level, she founded Grassroots in Nebraska in March of 2009. The group’s mission is a return to Constitutional, limited government, according to its original meaning. While the group has held several tea party rallies, it’s focus is to take effective action. Among its many projects, GiN successfully coordinated testimony for the hearing of the Nebraska Sovereignty Resolution, networked with other groups to ensure a large show of public support at the hearing, and coordinated follow up support to ensure its passage in April 2010. While working to build up GiN throughout 2009, she was asked to work as writer and producer of the documentary film, A New America, which lays out how Progressivism is responsible for how America has moved away from its Constitutional roots. You can see more of her work on Grassroots in Nebraska (GiN) and StubbornFacts