10 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 35.8 ms ] thread
This has been the case. It's just expanding.

Often times you'll find former members of the military or government start a `private` firm, just to turn around and use the connections they made to land a government contract, or two.

It's only a bad thing if you're one of the hundreds of millions of people not invited to the party and cut out of the deals because you didn't know the right people.

I don't see the problem? /s

Further proof the US doesn't have Capitalism and free markets. It has Crony Capitalism and a foundation of a financial system that plays favorites.

I'm surprised anyone is surprised.

The US does have capitalism. Crony capitalism is capitalism - it's right there in the name.
Nah. That's part of the subversion. That's part of the marketing. That's part of the ruse.

That's the irony. It's not Capitalism. Not even close.

I'm sorry but any definition of capitalism which doesn't include the United States - arguably the most nakedly and aggressively capitalist society in human history except perhaps for the British empire, which taught the US everything it knows - is absurd on its face. The purpose of the system is what it does, and capitalism is what capitalists do. Oligarchy and crony capitalism are the most efficient forms for capitalism to take to transfer value to the capitalist class without interference from the market or government, and so capitalism tends to evolve in that direction, similar to the way many forms of live tend to evolve into crabs.
Friend. Crony Capitalism is not Capitalism. If it was it would be called just Capitalism.

We can move on now.

compare Goldstein, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism (1949) or perhaps the nonfiction essays which led to its composition...
(comment deleted)
(comment deleted)