8/13/2019 Bleedingheartlibertarians.com-Dear Left Corporatism is Your Fault

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bleedingheartlibertarians.com http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2011/11/dear-left-corporatism-is-your-fau

Jaso n Brennan

Dear Left: Corporatism Is Your Fault

Im not usually one f or polemics. But so metimes polemics is called for. Here goes.

Dear members of the moderate lef t,

America is suf f ering f rom rampant, run- away corporat ism and crony capitalism. We are increasingly a

plutocracy in which government serves the interest s of elite f inanciers and CEOs at the expense of everyone

else.

You know this and you complain loudly about it. But the problem is yourf ault. Youcaused this state of aff airs

Stop it.

Unlike we libertarianish people, you people actually hold and have been holding signif icant political power in th

US over the past 50 years. What have you done with t his power? Youve greased the corporat ist machine eve

chance youve gott en. Youve made things worse, not better. Our current problems are yourf ault. You need tostop.

We to ld you this would happen, but you wouldnt listen. You complain, rightly, that regulato ry agencies are

controlled by the very corporat ions t hey are supposed to const rain. Well, yeah, we to ld you that would happe

When you create powerand you people love to create powerthe unscrupulous seek to capture that powe

f or their personal benefit . Time and time again, they succeed. We to ld you that would happen, and we gave yo

an accurate account of how it would happen.

You complain, perhaps rightly, that corporations are just t oo big. Well, yeah, we told you that would happen.

When you create complicated tax codes, complicated regulatory regimes, and complicated licensing rules, thes

regulations naturally select f or larger and larger corporat ions. We to ld you that would happen. Of course,these increasingly large corporat ions then capture these rules, codes, and regulations to disadvantage their

competitors and exploit the rest of us. We told you that would happen.

Its not rocket science. Its public choice economics. You recognized, rightly, that public choice economics was

threat to your ideology. So, you didnt listen, because you didnt want to be wrong. Public choice predicted tha

the government programs you created with the goal of f ixing problems would of ten instead exacerbate those

problems. Well, the evidence is in. You were wrong and public choice theo ry was right. If you have any decency

it is time to admit you were wrong and change. Stop making things worse.

You spent the past f if ty years empowering corporations and the mos t unscrupulous of the rich. You created

rampant moral hazard in the f inancial secto r. You created the system that socializes risks but privatizes prof itYou created the system that creates a revolving doo r between Obamas staf f and Goldman Sachs. Theres a

reason why Wall Street throws money at Obama. Its because you, the moderate lef t, are Wall Street s biggest

supporters. Oh, I know you complainabout Wall Street. But your actions s peak louder than your words.

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You balk: Isnt the problem the regressive pro-market post -Reagan politics? Please, people. Lets be serious a

moment. Reagan used a bunch of pro- market, pro- liberty, anti-big government rhetoric, but the man was no

libertarian, and he did little t o make the country more libertarian. Reagan spent and spent, and thus ran up the

debt. He doubled the number of imports with trade restrictions. He pursued militarist ic foreign policy. He

increased rather than decreased the size, scope, and power of government. Reagan ramped up the war on

Americans civil libert ies drugs . He wasnt even a big deregulatorthat was Carter. Look past rhetoric to reality

Reagan was in practice just a more militar ist ic version of one of you. (More militarist ic? Maybe Im giving you

too much credit. While we spent Black Friday shopping, Obama spent it having his military murder innocent

Afghan children.)

Point your f ingers at yourself . Youdid this.

Now, heres the good news. Unlike we libertarianish people, you members o f the moderate lef t will cont inue to

hold and exercise po wer. So, learn so me public choice, and use what you learn in practice. Im ready to f orgive

you, if youre ready to change.