Saturday, February 12, 2011

On Libertarians and Faux Llibertarians

Credit Writedowns has a good article on how corporatists (people who think corporations should have the same rights as individuals) masquerade as libertarians.
http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/02/corporatism-masquerading-as-liberty.html

Here is an excerpt from the article:

"Let me be bold here: The ‘Corporatist’ is a kleptocrat masquerading as a believer in liberty. He uses terminology based in liberty to construct an ideology solely as a means of furthering the gains of a specific strata of society allied with the corporatist and at the expense of other strata, by coercion if necessary.

"Remember my post on kleptocracy from 2008? If not, here are the four methods Jared Diamond says ruling elites use to maintain power:

"Disarm the populace, and arm the elite.


Make the masses happy by redistributing much of the tribute received, in popular ways.

Use the monopoly of force to promote happiness, by maintaining public order and curbing violence. This is potentially a big and underappreciated advantage of centralized societies over noncentralized ones.

The remaining way for kleptocrats to gain public support is to construct an ideology or religion justifying kleptocracy.

Read more: http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/02/corporatism-masquerading-as-liberty.html#ixzz1Dm2gX7xi

Majia here: I find disturbing the incredible corporatist fervor in the commentary found on some "financial" blogs such as zerohedge.

I agree with many financial conservatives that the government's response to this crisis has been poorly aimed and implemented. I also agree that the Fed played a role in causing the housing crisis.

However, the idea promoted in so many commentaries and comments that DE-REGULATION is the solution is fundamentally frightening.

It is people's lack of knowledge about history that enables this attitude toward de-regulation.

Do people really want to return to a time when 80-90% of the population was destitute, even when they held full time jobs?

Do they want to return to a time when child labor was legal and that exploitative work conditions were the norm?

Do they want to return to a time when environmental protection was unheard of and workplace conditions routinely killed workers?

Government is a complex apparatus and although many of its functions may be problematic (such as empire building using the military), other functions are important, such as social security, education, environmental protection, etc.

The goal should be to reform bad government not to eliminate it in favor of the absolute tyranny of the corporations.

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