Decnavda discusses some things that ‘liberals’ might do to re-establish their power:

I believe that Americans are attracted to the Republican ideas of self-reliance, enterprise, and opportunity for advancement. One problem is that too many liberals seem to agree that those ARE Republican ideas, and liberalism is framed as the government taking care of people and helping to equalize the outcomes of market forces. This is because most of our intellectuals are watered-down socialists. As a result, we seem to have conceded that Republican capitalism is the true capitalism.
It does not have to be this way. Rather than only taking care of the masses, the government could empower them. Rather than equalize outcomes, we can redistribute wealth to equalize opportunities. Successful past wealth redistribution plans, such as the Homestead Act, the G.I. Bill, and subsidized home mortgages, have given the poor opportunity and capital in form of land, homes, and education.
Liberals should not fight capitalism, we should reclaim it for the masses.

Well, some of this is right. The republican capitalism certainly bears little resemblance to true capitalism. However, none of the proposals above have anything to do with capitalism. Perhaps the last sentence should read something like:

We should reclaim the meaning of classical liberalism and bring capitalism back to the masses.

By the way, if you are at all interested in tax law Decnavda has a lot of good stuff for you.

Oh, and Decnavda does not appear to have any permalinks. The above post is the only on on June 11.

South Knox Bubba, after taking yesterday off, is making up for it today. Plenty of stuff on Bush talk, WMDs, hunting terrorists, bigotry, both Clintons, and the plight of big pharm and finance. Go be entertained.

Those of you pondering the level at which free markets operate in this country should read this report (via SKB) on big Pharm’s intended lobbying effort for the coming year. It is pretty clear that governments at all levels are trying to participate in planning for this industry and those of us paying the bill can evaluate the results.

The big banks are fighting for the elimination of our privacy (also via SKB) in the name of providing ‘high-quality service’

The banks contend the only consistent way to regulate the industry is through national standards, and that barring information-sharing with affiliates would make it impossible for them to provide high-quality service to customers.

They want regulation and they want to make sure the rules read the way they want. And, if their idea high quality service is the continual flow of snail mail spam flowing from their insurance joint-marketing partners then it must stop.

The appropriate rule regarding customer/patient privacy for all businesses is pretty straight forward:

Information can only be released with the conscious informed consent of the individual customer and only to those organizations specifically approved by the individual customer.

Tweak it a bit if you like but it does not take more then this….not volumes of regs, 100s of attorneys, or $millions wasted in non-productive lobbying efforts.

Bill Gates is a bright guy but apparently no better at speaking in clear terms then most others when trying to describe the dominant socio-economic structure of the last century plus:

MOYERS: What does it say to you that half of all 15 year olds in South Africa and Zimbabwe could lose their lives to AIDS? What does it say to you that 11 million children, roughly, die every year from preventable diseases? What does it say to you that of the 4 million babies who die within their first month, 98 percent are from poor countries? What do those statistics tell you about the world?
GATES: It really is a failure of capitalism. You know capitalism is this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes wonderful inventions to be done. But in this area of diseases of the world at large, it’s really let us down.

MOYERS: But markets are supposed to deliver goods and services to people.
GATES: And when people have money it does.

Gates and Moyer are both on the right track pointing out to us the seriousness of this problem and asking why in this world some of these situations aren’t improving. They are wrong in ascribing this failure to capitalism…or even anything close to it. For lack of a better term what Gates is describing is a failure of statist cronyism.

our foundation is not involved in the diseases of the rich world. Not, you know, those are very important, but the market is working there. Between the basic research that the government funds, through NIH. The bio-tech companies. The pharmaceutical companies. You know incredible things will happen with cancer and heart disease over these next 20 or 30 years. Because that’s a case where capitalism is at work.

The pharms are one of the best examples of state corporatism: highly regulated and highly protected (could we extend our patent one more time, please). In spite of the statist environment the pharms exist in I am hopeful that Gates is right that incredible things will happen and I hope that it won’t take a nest egg of Gatesian proportions to get access.

Gates transcript link via Charles Dodsen who adds some commentary to the lengthy debate on Gates started by Jeanne D’arc.

It looks like congress is moving ahead with the wealthy welfare tax reduction act. Lucky for us that they have reduced it from the over $700 billion requested to a more sensible $550 billion. I feel a lot better about this now. But watch out…if you start hearing calls to remove the sunset clauses. Without them expect the total to be around $1.1 trillion over 10 years.

Jeane D’arc says

To me, the speech, while in many ways pessimistic, is inspiring in its honesty, intelligence, vision, genuine patriotism, and call “to stand up to the schoolyard bullies in Washington.”

Go over to her place and read the entire April 28 speech by John Brady Kiesling.