Anti-business and the New Economy

TGregg

TGregg

Politicians have taken this US class war to new levels - to the point of being very anti-business. Witness these "occupation" demonstrations for instance. Or take this example comment from Richard on a Yahoo message board (quoted in entirety):

lets all pick a buissness and not shop or buy there for 6 months

He wants to put a place out of business to make a point that they should treat people better.

One can be anti-business. You can say that businesses need to be better to society. I'm not even going to argue the point. But growing government anti-business makes doing business harder. That hurts the economy (spittle flecked Krugman articles not withstanding). And if a worsening economy makes people more anti-business, then we have a vicious feedback loop.
 
well, you are just looking at one swing of the pendulum. Even though they deny it, you are correct, they are anti business. But they want more government goods and services, and that takes money, and no matter how high tax rates go, 100% of nothing is nothing, so at some point they will realize, no business, no tax revenue, and they will back off and the pendulum swings the other way.

Just look at China. From anti business to pro business.

The question is simply where are we now. Pro business says that's enough. Anti business says no, there is still more to get.

Usually after these dogmatic principled debates some common sense moderate enters and finds a middle ground that neither side is comfortable with.
 
There are a few problems with this one sided view. Businesses cannot prop themselves up without consumers. Who are the biggest consumers? The middle class. Who traditionally protected the rights of the middle class? The government. The government used to be a balancing force because it could enact regulations that would prevent exploitation of labor by the wealthy. There are other very important reasons for regulation. For example, the government is the only authority that can put limits on too much risk-taking by the financial sector. Why do we need this type of regulation? Hmm, did we already forget what happened?

Strict financial regulations that were put in place after the Great Depression were rolled back one by one in the last 20 years, and see what happens. People have a short memory. It is obvious that excessive risk taking by too-big-to-fail banks leads to major instabilities and occasional catastrophic failures. And when those failures happen, it's the tax payer (i.e., government), not the businesses, who pay the enormous cost.
 
when the shit hit the fan the capitalists became socialists and received the bailouts. obama likes this trend because he wants a few very large financial instiutions who are beholden to the government. the government will then dictate who receives credit.
capitalism is too messy for politicians and professors like jeffrey sachs. ceo blankfein walks away with a $68m pay while recent college graduates cannot get jobs. on top of that the shareholders of goldman can get screwed as can be seen by the price of its stock.
 
Quote from ssrrkk:

Strict financial regulations that were put in place after the Great Depression were rolled back one by one in the last 20 years..............
More...

Could not have said it better myself.

As I watched wall street melt down in 2007/2008, I remembered what my high school history teacher covered in class eons ago. In particular he brought up BofA. That company was too big to fail once before and FDR, et al forced them back to stay within the state of California.

Unless you are NOT among the 400 most well to do, it is time for push back. Reciting the mantra of those 400 "bad business climate" is absurd. My small business is screaming right now..no thanks to Bofa.

P.S. Its the social conservatives that are reciting that mantra the loudest and a good business climate is hardly their objective.
 
lets all pick a buissness and not shop or buy there for 6 months

The words of a broke ass mofo, rallying his broke ass friends.

Go long Ramen noodles.
 
Quote from nutmeg:

lets all pick a buissness and not shop or buy there for 6 months

The words of a broke ass mofo, rallying his broke ass friends.

Go long Ramen noodles.
More...
how does someone who is broke boycott? If he's broke isn't he already boycotting everything? How will it affect my business if everybody who has no money no longer shops here?
 
There are a few problems with this one sided view. Businesses cannot prop themselves up without consumers. Who are the biggest consumers? The middle class. Who traditionally protected the rights of the middle class? The government. The government used to be a balancing force because it could enact regulations that would prevent exploitation of labor by the wealthy. There are other very important reasons for regulation. For example, the government is the only authority that can put limits on too much risk-taking by the financial sector. Why do we need this type of regulation? Hmm, did we already forget what happened?

Strict financial regulations that were put in place after the Great Depression were rolled back one by one in the last 20 years, and see what happens. People have a short memory. It is obvious that excessive risk taking by too-big-to-fail banks leads to major instabilities and occasional catastrophic failures. And when those failures happen, it's the tax payer (i.e., government), not the businesses, who pay the enormous cost.
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+1
 
Bailing out the banks fixed one problem but created another problem. Now the little guy is asking, Where's my bailout?

You can't defend it saying it was a mistake. How come you just realized bailing out the banks was a mistake. Why can't you bail me out and THEN realize it's a mistake?

I don't see what the big deal is. It's all taxpayers money. Why not just give the taxpayers a big bailout with their own money and call it even?

Until then, there is going to be a growing resentment toward the banks and big business, and well ther should be. All the taxes cannot pay for the things the little guy gets like SS and Medicare, yet somehow there is plenty of money anytime it's good for business.

Until the government gets out of the SS retirement business and the Medicare health care business and the banking business and the big business business, we are all just going to fight over who gets taxed and who controls the revenue.
 
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