Pro-business or pro-market?

Jonah Goldberg makes a great distinction:

…the difference between being pro-business and pro-market is categorical. A politician who is a “friend of business” is exactly that, a guy who does favors for his friends. A politician who is pro-market is a referee who will refuse to help protect his friends (or anyone else) from competition unless the competitors have broken the rules. The friend of business supports industry-specific or even business-specific loans, grants, tariffs, or tax breaks. The pro-market referee opposes special treatment for anyone.

Goldberg’s point is that the GOP must make up its mind about which one it is. Pro-business is crony capitalism, venture socialism and Big Government as we know it today. Pro-market is more the Tea Party putting real checks on Washington. Goldberg describes the GOP’s dilemma in more detail; RTWT.

To make my view clear: I am not pro-business, I am absolutely pro-market. The mentality that the economy would boom (and America would be great again) if only we could vote in smart people to tinker with the economy in good ways – if only the Republicans had power to do better Washington-y things than the Democrats do – that mentality is part of what has gotten America into a hole.

The truth is, nothing that government does to ~~rig~~ interfere with markets and business outcomes is ever much good. It never turns out anything as well as the politicians said it would, and never as well as what markets – that is, free people – could do, if left to their own devices.

heliotrope says

April 10, 2014 at 12:17 pm - April 10, 2014

Calvin Coolidge wrote this about Progressivism:

This is not the government which was put into form by Washington and Hamilton and popularized by Jefferson …. Behind very many of these enlarging activities lies the untenable theory that there is some short cut to perfection. It is conceived that there can be a horizontal elevation of the standards of the nation, immediate and perceptible, by the simple device of new laws. This has never been the case in human experience ….
Under the attempt to perform the impossible there sets in a general disintegration. When legislation fails, those who look upon it as a sovereign remedy simply cry out for more legislation. A sound and wise statesmanship which recognizes and attempts to abide by its limitations will undoubtedly find itself displaced by the public official who promises much, talks much, legislates much, expands much, but accomplishes little.

The only thing I would add to the President’s statement is “regulates much”.

Coolidge is frequently attacked by Progressives. They paint him as a champion for greed and predatory capitalism when they misquote him as saying: The business of America is business. That misquote helps them to reduce him to a two dimensional cartoon.

Classical liberalism in America was the belief that all men are created equal, are endowed with inalienable rights, that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. Coolidge was a classical liberal and concerning these three principles, he wrote:

No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of their Revolutionary fathers.

The Progressives forced the classical liberals into the defensive posture of protecting the classical liberal status quo against statism and the erosion of classical liberal principles.

So, now we have allowed ourselves to be branded by the “Progressives” as the reactionaries who want to go back to starving grandma, bullying gays, abusing the chil’run, letting contaminated water flow, looking for wars to fight, hating hispanics, preying on the poor and blah, blah, blah.

Meanwhile, the “Progressives” have done just exactly what Coolidge said they would do and we are all feeling the erosion of our basic principles.

The “free” market is the result of classic liberalism due entirely to the freedoms and belief system of We the People to pursue our dreams, but regulated by We the People to place practical restraints on the commerce and personal interactions to protect the inalienable rights of We the People. No one should accept “caveat emptor” to be a basic principle or light and transient definitions of tolerance, fairness, equality, hope and change to be established and adjudicated by political force.

Crony capitalism is no different than a monopoly or trust or cartel. It is the game of manipulation of the market. It is unleashed in order to thwart the “invisible hand” from going about its natural process of leveling the playing field.

The reason Progressives hate Wal-Mart is because it has continually and continuously out-foxed the social engineering inherent in the Progressive dogma. There should be a dynamic tension between business and We the People to help protect the public and the workers and the environment. But is mom and pop candle-makers can’t compete with Wal-Mart, that is not really a government problem. It is entirely a consumer choice.

Comments

Richard Bell says
April 9, 2014 at 1:49 pm - April 9, 2014
“No government will ever be smart enough or fluid enough to perform as well as the natural forces that guide capitalism.” (Richard Bell)
ILoveCapitalism says
April 9, 2014 at 1:54 pm - April 9, 2014
RB – Yes!
Richard Bell says
April 9, 2014 at 3:26 pm - April 9, 2014
You da man, ILC. 😉
Seane-Anna says
April 9, 2014 at 11:16 pm - April 9, 2014
Pro-business or pro-market. Now I clearly understand the difference, AND why corporations shower billions on liberal politicians. Those politicians are pro-business, NOT pro-market, and the corporations want to be protected from competition. Got it. Thank you, Mr. Goldberg.
Sean L says
April 9, 2014 at 11:38 pm - April 9, 2014
If we want to stop using euphemisms, “Pro-business” here means “corporatist,” which is a fancy way of saying, “economic fascist.” The close government control of privately-owned corporations by the Nazi government is well documented, and it is well-known that the Nazis awarded contracts and other bonuses to corporations that helped the Nazis to achieve their economic agenda.
So, in essence, we have a fascist economy. Our security borders on police state, too. The only missing puzzle piece is the racial purity stuff and genocide- and the rhetoric about “white privilege” and “white guilt” sound like the first rumbles of a significant unpleasantness.
heliotrope says
April 10, 2014 at 12:17 pm - April 10, 2014
Calvin Coolidge wrote this about Progressivism:
This is not the government which was put into form by Washington and Hamilton and popularized by Jefferson …. Behind very many of these enlarging activities lies the untenable theory that there is some short cut to perfection. It is conceived that there can be a horizontal elevation of the standards of the nation, immediate and perceptible, by the simple device of new laws. This has never been the case in human experience ….
Under the attempt to perform the impossible there sets in a general disintegration. When legislation fails, those who look upon it as a sovereign remedy simply cry out for more legislation. A sound and wise statesmanship which recognizes and attempts to abide by its limitations will undoubtedly find itself displaced by the public official who promises much, talks much, legislates much, expands much, but accomplishes little.
The only thing I would add to the President’s statement is “regulates much”.
Coolidge is frequently attacked by Progressives. They paint him as a champion for greed and predatory capitalism when they misquote him as saying: The business of America is business. That misquote helps them to reduce him to a two dimensional cartoon.
Classical liberalism in America was the belief that all men are created equal, are endowed with inalienable rights, that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. Coolidge was a classical liberal and concerning these three principles, he wrote:
No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of their Revolutionary fathers.
The Progressives forced the classical liberals into the defensive posture of protecting the classical liberal status quo against statism and the erosion of classical liberal principles.
So, now we have allowed ourselves to be branded by the “Progressives” as the reactionaries who want to go back to starving grandma, bullying gays, abusing the chil’run, letting contaminated water flow, looking for wars to fight, hating hispanics, preying on the poor and blah, blah, blah.
Meanwhile, the “Progressives” have done just exactly what Coolidge said they would do and we are all feeling the erosion of our basic principles.
The “free” market is the result of classic liberalism due entirely to the freedoms and belief system of We the People to pursue our dreams, but regulated by We the People to place practical restraints on the commerce and personal interactions to protect the inalienable rights of We the People. No one should accept “caveat emptor” to be a basic principle or light and transient definitions of tolerance, fairness, equality, hope and change to be established and adjudicated by political force.
Crony capitalism is no different than a monopoly or trust or cartel. It is the game of manipulation of the market. It is unleashed in order to thwart the “invisible hand” from going about its natural process of leveling the playing field.
The reason Progressives hate Wal-Mart is because it has continually and continuously out-foxed the social engineering inherent in the Progressive dogma. There should be a dynamic tension between business and We the People to help protect the public and the workers and the environment. But is mom and pop candle-makers can’t compete with Wal-Mart, that is not really a government problem. It is entirely a consumer choice.