{"id":4843,"date":"2010-02-25T05:00:58","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T09:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=4843"},"modified":"2010-02-25T05:00:58","modified_gmt":"2010-02-25T09:00:58","slug":"big-business-vs-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/02\/big-business-vs-capitalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Business vs. capitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Tom Blumer reminds us of what has long been known, that big businesses often oppose free market economics, preferring to squelch competition and gain advantages through government subsidies:<\/p>\n

That business leaders are frequently all too willing to sell out the core principles of the free market system in the name of perceived and often illusory short-term profits is not exactly news. Adam Smith wrote over 200 years ago that \u201cpeople of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Too many businesses, when they reach a certain size and gain confidence that they are no longer just a few missteps away from serious financial problems, often put more energy into cementing their current market positions through anticompetitive means than into growing or expanding their enterprises. If they become big enough, they often turn into institutions inexplicably perceived as \u201cindispensable,\u201d which then enables them to lobby for unfair breaks from governments. Thus, at the local and state level, supposedly indispensable businesses that are sometimes as small as a few hundred employees receive tax abatements and other incentives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

via Pajamas Media \u00bb Big Business as an Opponent of Free Markets<\/a>.\n

Not only did Adam Smith warn of this tendency, Karl Marx believed it was one of capitalism\u2019s \u201cinternal contradictions\u201d that would bring it crumbling down. Both Democrats and Republicans often blur over this fact, at the expense of the small businesses that are really on the front lines of the free market.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Blumer reminds us of what has long been known, that big businesses often oppose free market economics, preferring to squelch competition and gain advantages through government subsidies: That business leaders are frequently all too willing to sell out the core principles of the free market system in the name of perceived and often illusory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[372],"class_list":["post-4843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-capitalism"],"yoast_head":"\nBig Business vs. capitalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tom Blumer reminds us of what has long been known, that big businesses often oppose free market economics, preferring to squelch competition and gain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/02\/big-business-vs-capitalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Big Business vs. capitalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tom Blumer reminds us of what has long been known, that big businesses often oppose free market economics, preferring to squelch competition and gain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/02\/big-business-vs-capitalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-25T09:00:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/02\/big-business-vs-capitalism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/02\/big-business-vs-capitalism\/\",\"name\":\"Big Business vs. capitalism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-02-25T09:00:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-02-25T09:00:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Tom Blumer reminds us of what has long been known, that big businesses often oppose free market economics, preferring to squelch competition and gain\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/02\/big-business-vs-capitalism\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/02\/big-business-vs-capitalism\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/02\/big-business-vs-capitalism\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Big Business vs. capitalism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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