TOS Blog: Daily Commentary from an Objectivist Perspective

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Cronyism for the Children?

Posted by Ari Armstrong at 7:30 am ET

A brilliant new video from the Charles Koch Institute shows with heartbreaking clarity how government controls of the economy discourage productiveness and encourage cronyism.

The video begins, “Our children used to have big dreams.” Various children say things like, “When I grow up, I want to be a doctor!” and “I want to build the tallest skyscraper in the world!”

“What are our children learning today,” given all the regulations, bailouts, and handouts of modern America? Today’s more “enlightened” children say:

When I grow up, I want to work for the government and rig the system. I want to work for the IRS. The SEC. . . . I’m going to be a lobbyist. I’m going to Capitol Hill to work on a committee to put whatever my friends want into legislation. . . . I’m going to fight for my piece of the taxpayer pie. . . . When I grow up, I want to be a crony!

Initially, this video is hilarious in how it exposes and mocks the corruption of modern American government. But then the sad lesson sinks in: The regulatory-entitlement state really does inculcate a culture that rewards cronyism and discourages productiveness.

So oppose cronyism and support capitalism. Do it for yourself—and “for the children!”

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Related:

• Capitalism and the Moral High Ground
• How to Actually “Separate Government from the Corporations”

Image: iStockPhoto

Posted in: Individual Rights and Law