I don't know about you, but every time I come across the phrase "crony capitalism" I get teed off. Cronyism is not exclusive to capitalism.
Out of curiosity, I decided to Google the phrase. surprisingly, to me, much has been written on the subject. Let me share some of what I found.
Of all places, a web site called "wise Geek" we have the following definition of crony capitalism.
Crony capitalism is a condition in which participants in an economy rooted in capitalism earn and manipulate favor with one or more government entities. The favor is generally not based on quality or merit; instead the relationship is normally based on political posturing that results in both the capitalists in business and the government officials determine such a relationship would be mutually advantageous. In the worst examples, this variant of capitalism creates a situation where taxes collected from citizens are used to purchase overpriced goods and services from favored suppliers, who in turn influence the creation and application of laws impacting business operations.
Now that we have workable definition let's see what some conservative pundits have had to say on the subject.
Professor Dom Armentano wrote an article for LewRockwell.com titled "Crony Capitalism is Not Capitalism". he starts his essay with this:
"It's all the current fashion to dump on "capitalism."
"It was the greedy free market, supposedly, that created both the housing bubble and the housing bust and led, inevitably, to the "great recession." Capitalism, according to most liberal pundits (and even Alan Greenspan in a bad mood), is an inherently risky and unstable system that requires government regulation to correct its flaws and moderate its excesses."
The Professor does a masterful job of defending capitalism and condemning crony capitalism. It's worth reading the whole article. He ends his piece with the following:
"Yet the political class, always absolving itself of all blame, would have you believe that capitalist greed caused the recession and that political regulators need more power. Not so. What we actually require are constraints on monetary growth, more competitive markets, balanced budgets and less output-restricting regulation. But first and foremost, before we spend and regulate further, we require an informed media and an enlightened public that can distinguish real capitalism from phony, crony capitalism."
Right On, Professor. You nailed it.
Senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, Michael Barone wrote in February, "Under Obama, crony capitalism rules the day". In his article, he draws a comparison between crony capitalism during World War II with what is occurring in the Obama administration today. Here's his ending paragraph:
"Back in the 1940s, there was an excuse for crony capitalism -- there was a war on. And FDR had a gift for picking people who, like Kaiser, delivered the goods. Today that excuse is not available, and it's far from apparent that Obama has that gift."
I think Mr. Barone has the President pretty well sized-up.
All of the above three references did a fine job of defending capitalism and condemning crony capitalism. But I'm not satisfied. In my opinion, the words "crony" and "capitalism" do not belong together and should not be used together. Cronyism is the antithesis of capitalism. Cronyism is found across the political spectrum. There was cronyism in nazi Germany, there was cronyism in the fascist regimes of Mussolini and Franco, there is cronyism in the social democratic countries of the world today, and there is rampant cronyism in the Marxist regime of Chavez in Venezuela. Those who practice cronyism are morally corrupt opportunist and should be condemned where ever they are found.
I'm calling on the Tea Party Patriots and all capitalist to denounce those that insist on putting the two words together; no matter their political color. The term cronyism is used so often in combination with capitalism, that many of the uneducated are turned-off entirely to capitalism. We can not let this stand.
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