John McCain is just another champion of big business. Always remember that throughout history, business regulation and taxes usually come at the desire of one (or a few) big businesses to escape taxes in a loophole. The current McCain platform is to make sure the government is no longer the “voice of big business”. I laugh when I hear this. When government and business team up, it is not the government that suffers. Government is always the dominant partner in the business-government alliance. Too many people are quick to blame businesses for their intrusion into the government world. If we had kept our Republic small, with no authority to tax, regulate, and control the American economy, businesses would have little reason to be making these alliances with the government.
In case no one remembers, Bill Clinton pushed for a tax hike in 1993. This tax hike simply helped him politically by “limiting big business” with huge taxes. People were no longer as angry at the big business executives (for being successful). However, not one executive was truly harmed by this. They were able, because of the new tax laws, to move pay into benefits and stock options, many of them being even richer because they could avoid taxes altogether. Don’t think businessmen were being sneaky–Clinton was well aware of this loophole beforehand.
Remember, in our society government and business are in permanent alliance. When business wants “privatization” of something, that is not capitalism, it usually means a state-sponsored monopoly. When government wants to regulate business, it usually because one (or a few) big businesses are expecting to gain from it at the expense of their competitors.
Filed under: Economics, John McCain, Politics | Tagged: Big Business, Capitalism, Executive Pay
Remember it is a strategic competitive advantage to the stronger banks that the weaker ones have their exec comp limited… I don’t think Barak Obama will stand up to the execs at the stronger banks.