Can We Save the American Dream
Source
Can We Save the American Dream: by Mike Lee, Congressman from Utah
Introduction
Focusing on how “… crony capitalism undermines both opportunity and economic growth …” Mike Lee, congressman from Utah, discusses how crony capitalism works and what can be done about it.
Highlights
From a summary created by Alex Adrianson:
“It (crony capitalism) empowers and enriches the few by disenfranchising the many. Like a black hole, cronyism bends the economy toward the state, inexorably shifting wealth and opportunity from the public to policymakers.”
“The more power government amasses, the more privileges are bestowed on the government’s friends, the more businesses invest in influence instead of innovation, the more advantages accrue to the biggest special interests with the most to spend on politics and the most to lose from fair competition.
“Once profits depend on serving congressmen instead of customers, the interests of the elite diverge from those of the nation. Innovation slows, and true inequality—inequality of opportunity—emerges. The American people are forced to work for big businesses instead of the other way around. The middle class falls and the middle-men rise.
“Far from the rivals of popular mythology, the elite leaders of Big Government, Big Business, and Big Special Interests are more often than not partners, in collusion to help each other climb to the highest rungs of success, and then pull up the ladder behind them.
“To be clear, the problem I’m describing is not that there is too much money in politics. It’s that there’s too much politics in the economy: three and a half trillion dollars in direct federal spending, and almost $2 trillion more redirected through regulations.
“What we have today is a warped economy increasingly built on connections instead of competitiveness. Record corporate profits and jaw-dropping gains among elites, but slow growth, stagnant wages, and limited opportunities for everyone else. Except, of course, in the Washington, D.C., area, home to six of the ten wealthiest counties in the United States.”
Safe Anchors
When the private and public elite collude, the people pay the price
Recommended
Opportunity for All - Favoritism for None: a book listing many of the ways in which cronyism is damaging America with suggestions about what could be done to solve the problems
Crony Capitalism Wikipedia article
Types of Capitalism discussion of Laissez-faire, Free Market, Crony and State Capitalism
Sources
Page/link: list sources with a brief description of each; delete this section if you listed a primary source above