Who’s Powerful?

People seem to forget that government is simply an organization to which we have granted the right to use force - to protect us from others who would use force upon us.

It is stunning how different things are seen by different people.

His last statement, "But the MSM holds capitalism in contempt", maybe applies to Rocky and Bullwinkle, but certainly not any of the many all-financial shows, or a station that advertises.

And his statement:

"Business, to survive, must be a supplicant: it must work hard to please its customers, constantly adapt to meet their changing tastes, beg them to even visit the showroom to consider a purchase"

only applies to small companies, for the most part. I'm thinking about Citi issuing 30% credit cards, and the health care industry.

If you want to see how the health care insurance business operates, then watch this.

Stossel wrote,

"But the MSM holds capitalism in contempt."

What was the MSM?

John,

You wrote,

"government is simply an organization to which we have granted the right to use force"

We?

Not me.

I don't often disagree with John Stossel or with Don Boudreaux; but, in this case they both are clearly missing the point.

It is true that GM had no armies, no means of forcing its wishes on the people, except that it had a vast financial fortune and money is power, it buys the armies, it buys the congresscritters who supply the armies, it buys the thugs.

Paraphrasing the Rothschild that established their unimaginable wealth in banking said, "I care not who writes a nation's laws, if I control their money I control the country."

Did GM display that it had power? I would argue that yes they did. That power was magnified by combining it with the power of the other big two auto makers. The power was displayed in mustering votes in any election that concerned the auto making industry, it was displayed in that in 2009 they are still making autos that get gas mileage only marginally better than some 35 years ago.

No GM could force no one to buy their autos, but considering the gullibility of the American consumer they had the money to baffle the public with bullsh.t, and get the same effect.

People seem to forget that government is simply an organization to which we have granted the right to use force - to protect us from others who would use force upon us.

Government is an organization that grants itself authority over force. Sometimes it says that it protects us from others using force, and sometimes it even says that we grant its authority, but that's mostly a lot of bullshit.

The Feds didn't protect anyone from 9/11. It only now says that it has protected everyone from similar attacks that never occurred. That's a lot like saying that you'll pay me Tuesday for a hamburger today or that you'll reward me for some behavior you'd like me to practice years from now, after I'm dead.

Sure, I can call the armed men after I've suffered some forcible assault, and they might inflict further suffering on my attacker, assuming that they aren't the attackers themselves, but do they protect me from these assaults (or prevent them)? How would I know that?

Good point vidyohs.

I agree. By most definitions of the word power, GM was powerful. Almighty, no. Saying it didn't have power requires equivocation on the word power.

It's management controlled a great deal of assets and had more influence on voting and political processes at the national, state and local levels than most of us.

GM went through a power cycle. It earned its power in the free market by making competitive products like many great companies do. Good lesson to learn, rather than reinvest that 'power' into maintaining competitiveness it squandered it.

In his book, "Discover Your Inner Economist", Tyler Cowan wrote, "Businesses with bad reward systems tend to lose market share." I agree.

Sorry about the misspelling on Cowen's name.

As soon as GM started receiving tax dollars, it was not the American public who owned a share in GM, but GM who owned a share in the American public.

That's what politicians do: sell shares in you without your consent

When you have that much power you have to keep it in the back-room. For this need we now have a modern invention, the invention of Zero Inventory. No, that is not an antique fighter plane that does comma kazi.

They now have zero inventory of profits, zero inventory of capital gains, zero inventory, of return on investment, zero inventory, of efficiency, zero inventory, of thugs, zero inventory of lobbyists, zero inventory, of back-pocket politicians, zero inventory, of unfair tax breaks zero inventory, of secret payoffs, zero inventory, of tax money siphon-off, zero inventory, of mob connection, zero inventory, of monopoly pricing power, zero inventory, of corruption, zero inventory, of immorality, zero inventory, of planned obsolescence, zero inventory, of abusive customer data collection, zero inventory, of pricing discrimination, zero inventory, of dissatisfied customers, zero inventory, of water-boards.

The invisible evil of zero haunts your night.

And your engine stalls.

Clunk

!

If you want to understand just how powerful GM, Ford, and ITT were, dig into their performance on behalf of our enemies during WWII, and look into the fact that FDR granted them an exception to the Trading with the enemies Act.

That is flipping the bird at government.

The invisible evil of zero haunts your night.

You have no idea, my friend.

Only small companies must beg their customers to come?

What world do you live in?

I have 5 Wal Marts, 2 Lowes, 2 Home Depots and less than 200,000 people within 20 miles of me.

But only one courthouse.

The auto bailouts and "managed bankruptcies" were not expressions of corporate, shareholder or debtholder power (or even financial elite power) but rather of state power (to extract property through coercion or threat). In fact, it was not really the corporations themselves, their owners or creditors that were bailed out, it was organized labour that was bailed out.

Lee Kelly, poignant as always.

The power was displayed in mustering votes in any election that concerned the auto making industry

Gee, vidyohs, I think you stumbled on the key.

Any extraordinary power exhibited by GM, etc. is usually linked somehow to electoral politics.

JohnK,

"...government is simply an organization to which we have granted the right to use force - to protect us from others who would use force upon us."

Maybe you granted it, but I didn't. By the time I came along it was just doing what it does. I respect the political class to the extent that they protect my life, liberty, and property. I disrespect them to the extent that they do not. Lately, its been mostly the latter.

It's frightening that modern pop culture has so effectively cast businesses as the unseen, all-powerful wizard pulling the strings when that is so far from the truth.

When HMO's were deemed evil many customers left them.. what did they do? they couldn't force people to stay. Instead they adjusted and became more effective at delivering the services and quality people wanted. GM didn't adjust and is now playing the price for that failure.

The one entity that NEVER seems to adjust is government. That, in a nutshell, is why the founding fathers created a government that was limited in nature and held in check by competing powers. Unfortunately, we've eroded this system far too much so that we now have Presidents using stimulus money as a threat against a Senator's free speech (in just one example):

http://buanadha.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/a-bit-on-freedom/

Yes, Sam, sarcasm duly noted, but that is just one way.

The more direct way is to simply buy congresscritters and put them in your pocket, and frankly historical evidence shows us that it doesn't matter where in the states the congresscritter comes from, or what political party he is associated with, he can be bought.

I suggest to you, Sam, that the latter is vastly more efficient and reliable than simply influencing votes.

More than poignant, Methinks, that is exactly what is backing the Federal Reserve Note and the collateral on the vast loans secured by your government, your present and future labor, your present and future productivity.

The more direct way is to simply buy congresscritters and put them in your pocket

One of the reasons congresscritters are buyable is their desire to get re-elected, takes money, that does.