North Texas Daily

Garron Weeks | Staff Writer

In America, business runs almost every part of society and its economy is a mix of capitalism and socialism. They’re ran in a laissez-faire approach, meaning “that government should intervene as little as possible in the direction of economic affairs.” But whenever the government does get involved, it uses its monopoly of power to favor certain corporations or individuals. This is not capitalism, but crony-capitalism.

Capitalism is “an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations” without state-owned or influenced business. The Heritage Foundation defined crony-capitalism as enjoying “monopoly power [to] dictate pricing and conditions of service, often becoming extravagantly rich in the process, while denying millions of their countrymen that very same access.” Corporations create monopolies through lobbying and influencing politicians and the government.

This government intervention in businesses penalizes the owners and stockholders of businesses through tariffs, taxes, and regulations. Some regulations are important, but when they are influenced through lobbying, they rid the market of its natural order and corrupt the system. Since the year 2000, the finance sector of big banks lobbied a total of $2.84 billion directly into the United States political system, $961 million in donations to candidates and political parties and $1.88 billion in publicly disclosed lobbying expenditures to influence Congress and the executive branch. Money controls everything and there is a lot of influence going on in Washington D.C.

One of the biggest disadvantages to the lower class is the public education they are given. The government runs the schools and divides them with borders to leave those less fortunate to be grouped together. These schools do not provide the stability of education or an ability to choose the schooling best fit for the kids.

This leads to unskilled adults entering the workforce. These unskilled workers then face a workforce controlled by a minimum wage which makes everything cost more and makes it harder for people to get even low skill jobs.

After landing a low skill job, the worker then must to rely on welfare. This welfare sets a bar that inclines the person to not leave the welfare mark and to stay in their lower income class. Welfare does help people who need it, but a person may abuse the welfare system and are not inclined to leave the welfare state once receiving the benefits from it. These are all as a result of government involvement.

John Stossel said: “Most services improve. They get faster, better, cheaper. But not government monopolies. Government schools are rigid, boring, expensive and more segregated than private schools.” Our public education rank continues to drop among others in the world.

Milton Friedman, who won a Nobel Prize in Economic Science, once said, “Free enterprise prevents anybody from having too much power.”

With capitalism, the market will work out the most cost-effective and finest solution for the people’s needs and wants. With socialism and crony-capitalism, special interests will influence to have their businesses and products dominate the market. The people’s voice is not heard in socialism and crony-capitalism. The voices heard are from politicians, lobbyists and executives.

To overcome this damage of crony-capitalism so deeply rooted in our system, one must speak out against representatives who support lobbying. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the four wealthiest counties are located near Washington D.C., making our nation’s capital to perfect place to begin reform.

Featured Illustration: Dusk at our nation’s capital. Wikimedia Commons.