Billionaire T. Boone Pickens let's some truth out, and is "fed up" with Washington.
From Bloomberg:
Pickens bemoaned the fact that several years ago he could get just six of 51 Senate Republicans to support his natural gas amendment — “after all the money I’ve spent on the Republican Party.”Grant politicians power, and the politicians themselves go up for auction.
“But it sure fixed it,” Pickens said. “I quit spending money on those guys.”
Pickens said he’s staying away from D.C.
“I’ve got other things to do and I’m running out of time,” said Pickens, 84.
Why bother with free markets, competition, and customers who are so fickle they'll drop you like a hat if something better comes along?
Instead, billionaires can head down to Washington DC, and 'spend' (as Pickens put it) their cash on the best politicians money can buy.
Now they can erect barriers to competition, receive subsidies, and even bailouts if they pick the right horse. They can use all types of agencies, like the FDA and FCC to get some sweet monopoly privileges as well. Customers be damned!
Who's hot with the Billionaires this election cycle?
Forbes gives us breakdown:
This will go on for as long as it's acceptable that politicians can wield power.
Let's also not overlook that the one man that wanted no power over anyone's life, but instead wanted abolish as much of it as he could, had no dollars 'spent' on him in the brothel for billionaires.
It's not a direct donation, but Peter Thiel donated to a super PAC which supported Ron Paul:
ReplyDeletehttp://money.cnn.com/2012/02/20/news/economy/peter_thiel_ron_paul/index.htm
So that's at least 1 billionaire.
That's what I was gonna say...
DeleteIn the 1980’s Pickens was viewed as a corporate raider and founded United Shareholders Association, a DC non-profit that was against “The Good Ol’ Boys Club”(which one assumes also meant activist government). Fast-forward to his natural gas vehicle fuel station ‘play’ and he turned into one of the Good Ol’ Boys funneling big bucks to both political parties. Looks like it did not pay off in his case, but for others it appears it does.
ReplyDeleteIts clear the only way this can change at all is to have what they call in surfing, "a wipeout". A deflationary collapse sponsored by the implosion of crushing debt and suffocation by regulation should just about do it.
ReplyDeleteOnly when the hubris of the politicians and the bureaucrats has been devastated by their incapacity to do anything to turn the collapse around will the stage be ready for the rebuilding to commence.
Now you may say that in their hubris and command of the levers and buttons of the economy they will merely inflate their way out of it all. $16 trillion in public debt, not to mention private debt in the USA. And then there is China and Europe. Global debt and regulation is so huge the mind cannot comprehend the numbers. What sort of money printing do you think will be required to overcome the weight of debt and red tape that smothers us?