April 8, 2003
W: The Friend of Capitalism
Leonard at Unruled quotes a report from Donald Luskin on an meeting Luskin had with W. Luskin tells us that W is '...the best friend...' capitalism '... is likely to get nowadays.'
Leonard finds this sad and so do I. Now I don't know what definition of capitalism these folks are using but I'm pretty sure W does not use the same one I do and I'm a little surprised that Donald Luskin is taken in by this. W 'built' most of his wealth on the backs of the local taxpayers who will be paying for the Texas Ranger's stadium for many years to come. And there is nothing about this that is anywhere close to the free market capitalism I think Luskin would espouse.
If the elimination of the double taxation of dividends (see the Luskin quote above) were part of a cohesive, well documented, long term plan to move us toward a truly capitalist society I might accept his argument. But this is not the case and there is little else, if anything, that W has initiated that suggests tht this is his goal. Nope, I don't think W is anywhere close to being a friend of capitalism.
