The Miami Herald editorial page plucks freely a Cato Institute fellow's support for the Supreme Court decision lifting campaign finance limits for corporations: "a victory for free speech". Ilya Shapiro writes that the myth is that money is the evil in the political system. "Money is no more an evil in politics than it is in life generally." His point hews along the lines of libertarians generally: reduce the size of government. Starve the beast. Why does anyone pay attention, after more than a decade of a GOP majority in Congress and the White House that embraced the same mantra while doing the opposite?
One of the ways that conservatives and their libertarians mean to reduce the size of government is to disembowel federal and state authority: government is best that rests closest to the people, goes the idea that has been embraced up and down the conservative food chain. I'd like to invite Mr. Shapiro down to Miami and Miami-Dade County to see how well that has worked out: local governments formed of a permanent incumbency bolstered by insider lobbyists who act as gatekeepers of the bridge across the moat separating people from legislators. Ask the top players in the lobbyist class; Rodney Barreto or Sergio Pino or Chris Korge, Lucia Dougherty or Ron Book what percentage of revenue is represented by public interest organizations like the ACLU or Sierra Club or Planned Parenthood.
Eyeonmiami is a regular source (check out our archives, under "ethics" or "corruption", for example) for commentary on the deformation of democracy by money in politics. Consider the geographic and political role of South Florida as the epicenter of the asset bubble in housing and construction. The building boom-- that lobbyists like Sergio Pino and his friends on the board of US Century Bank helped foment so ably through outsized influence of local politics and bending regulators to their will-- was fodder for the myth that government must be "limited" in order to unleash the profoundly important social benefits created through the "free market". Look around, Mr. Shapiro, in the crappy subdivisions built out of the dreams of land speculators, spread throughout Miami-Dade's ghost suburbs: there is your great result of environmental rules suppressed and of corporate behavior doing better for taxpayers than government. Now, thanks to an activist Supreme Court weighted to members appointed from Republican presidents, we'll get what we deserve and more of it.
15 comments:
Gimleteye your argument has SOOOOO many holes.
1- The basic Idea is that if you have a bad local government you can move and still enjoy the protections granted you under the constitution,don't like Miami Dade County theres always Browrad, Palm Beach, Marion, Polk etc.(still get great weather too) You don't like Florida's government there always Alabama, Massachussets, Mississippi, Texas, Cali etc.
2- Yes there are lots and lots of crappy subdivisions and yes local folks had something to do with that but the engine that drove the speculative bubble was the powered by a
A- Federal Reserve lax monetary policy
B-FNMAE and FreediieMac relaxing lending standards add that to the correct perception that Feds would bail them out in a pinch and Sergio Pino and co. look like the cogs they are.
3- What seperates people from their legislators more than anything is low voter turnout. Here is the biggest hole in your argument NO WHERE in your rant do you mention how local elections are also affected by public employee unions and what damage that has wrecked on our local economy. To Eye ON Miami's credit you have posted some of those excesses. Salaries and pensions of local government employees are creating and unbearble tax burden on property owners and that is being reflected by people and businesses moving out of South Florida.
I'll take the Cato Institutes opinion over the Heralds anyday.
Farago, you are brilliant as always. The analysis is airtight. CATO, whoever you are, you're out of your league. Mental midgets shouldn't take on persons of great intellect.
This whole putrid system that spawned conservatives and Libertarians and lobbyists and developers and oligarchs is coming down. That's because the global capitalist economy is over now. Why? For one, because globalization was so successful in its brief heyday. It penetrated every market on the planet. It stomped out the Soviet Union and took control of the Russian economy. And who ever imagined China, closed off to the West not thirty years ago, could become
the largest market for a big-ticket consumer good like automobiles in 2009? For another, globalization found the absolute lowest wage possible in the undeveloped world. The profit addicts bumped right up against outright slavery and where possible went over the edge. Today more human beings are in bondage than anytime in human history.
But the system's success exhausted the possibilities for growth. And growth is its lifeblood. Growth kept it healthy and dynamic. When that growth became impossible capitalism turned inward. It began feeding on itself. That's when Wall Street turned Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers and the other investment banks into casinos. That's when M.I.T. trained mathematicians were summoned to make investment vehicles into computer generated logarithms beyond human comprehension. Since no more real wealth was being created the bankers were forced to resort to alchemy, in the form of derivatives, to give the appearance of wealth creation. Meanwhile, the truly productive corporate entities, even the largest of them, began being interned. R.I.P General Motors!
Alan is that you?
"Meanwhile, the truly productive corporate entities, even the largest of them, began being interned. R.I.P General Motors!"
This thanks to UAW and Closed Shop legislation.
" That's because the global capitalist economy is over now. "
It never existed it was a figment of your vivid marxist imagination. You mean to tell me GWBs (with the help of some Repubs and complicity of many Dems) steel tarriffs, TARP, Largest expansion of medicare, Patriot act and preemptive are Libertarian policies (And I'm the mental midget)
"The profit addicts bumped right up against outright slavery and where possible went over the edge."
Driven out of the US because of over regulation and excesive taxation (backed by folks like you) not necesarily just chasing cheap labor.
"It stomped out the Soviet Union and took control of the Russian economy."
Did this make you sad.... ahhh poor marxist apologist my heart weeps for you.
No, that wasn't Alan CATO, you dumbass. And I told you you're out of your league in these debates with people that went beyond the sixth grade. Fascism is not smart. Shhhhhhh!
There is no amount of insurance reform or tax reform that will counter balance US labor competing with countries that 1. Don't provide ANY health insurance, 2. Don't provide significant social services 3. Don't value human life or employ children. The whole damn argument is false on the left and the right. Oh, get real, people. Until China determines that they can build demand from within by improving the economic circumstances of their country, we don't have a snowball's chance in hell of competing. As a republican (and a realist), I resent you calling Farago a Marxist. Get real.
"Get Real"? What do you call anyone who constantly advocates for state intervention in the private economy? or forcefully (using power of the state)to level the economic playing field? Alan has a right to his opinion and point of view and I have a right to point out where those ideas and concept originate from. Your a Republican, and that qualifies you for what? (to be the ultimate source on identifying Marxist?)
As for you "Karl" (or ist Mr. Marx to me)I'll have you know I am a Middle School Graduate (175th in my class of 176,guess we went to the same school) which qualifies me to be a City of Miami Commissioner so think twice before you call me dumbass again (moron, clueless, incompetent or just plain stupid are all acceptable but please please please don't call me dumbass, it really hurts my feelings).
CATO I knew you had a thick skin and you'd live if I called you a dumbass. Judging by how hard you go after public employees, their lavish pensions and health insurance benefits, and working people in general, my guess is you have no heart either.
But I'm a Christian Marxist so you are still my brother. I'll be there to pick up the pieces when your tired old economic system, capitalism, crumbles. Soon going to happen too. If you're not real old, you'll get to see it.
And who finished 176, Natasha Sejas?
Comrade Karl ( can I call you Karl?) who finished in the 176 spot is a toss up between Nancy Pelosi and Sarah Pailin.
"Christian Marxist"? is a redundant term, both are beliefs based on strict dogmas that promise a better future, but always deliver a dreary and deprived present.
I have a heart and it works just fine. Those extrvagant salaries and pensions of public sector employees are paid on the backs of taxpayers a lot of them middle and lower middle class. I see the evidence and damages from that burden daily.
As per capitalism crumbling I seriously doubt it, since it (capitalism) does not exist, at least not here in the USA and hasn't for decades. What is crumbling around us is some hibryd semi-marxist system chock full of regulation, cronyism, worthless paper money and excessive taxes, when it ultimately crumbles I haven't a clue as too what will emerge. Maybe Seijism? And we will all chant LONG LIVE NATACHA!
CATO, you called me "comrade"! That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. I feel the love.
And you caught me in a little fib. I'm not a Christian. A silly superstition for sure.
You know I thought I had you pegged as a right-wing Libertarian but maybe I was wrong. Are you an Anarchist? You like Ron Paul and want the US military pulled back and the FED abolished? Whatever your ideological bent, a couple of questions.
Where do you draw the line between the interests of a person that works and a person that pays taxes? And what to you call an economy where the means of production are privately held? The way I understand it, that's capitalism.
Get real says this: funny comment about middle school. Republican comment relates to my right of center perspective on many subjects. However, I really get tired of people who hurl Marxist comments at those who are left of center. Perhaps I should have said "use your words." By the way, it's that kind of crap that is undermining the GOP.
Ahhh Comrade Karl you see I have a heart, lungs, a liver, a spleen and an (dumb)ass. I have been called an Anarchist,Conservative,libertarian and once even a "comunista" (this being Miami everything is possible).
I draw the line when we have a situation like we have locally where the average public sector employee salary is more than double the median family income and where public sector employees can retire at fifty with a high 5 or 6 figure pension for life, where lower middle class families and small businesses are crushed under the weight of this largess.
I don't espouse the culture of envy or hating the rich simply because they are rich. I do dislike those that are rich because of favorable treatment by the government AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHERS (see Bailouts and no bid contracts).
I will grant you there are some remnants of a capitalist system left in the US, BUT when you never really own your own property, when there exist a government backed FNMAE Or FREDDIE MAC or FHA, Where there are bankrupt taxpayer subsidized systems such as Social
(in)Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Unemployment Insurance, Where the government can buy GM, Chrysler or BOA, Where the money you save can be devalued at the whim of politicians and technocrats, Where their exist a "Fedral" Department of Education (indoctrination) or Energy etc, Where an FDA tells you what you can or can't ingest and the DEA puts you away for what equates to a free market transaction, I would hardly qualify such a place as Capitalist.
There’s lots more, but suffice it to say that I am not enamored with the almost purely democratic system that exist today there are certain rights THAT NO ONE should be able to vote away from you. Yes ownership of property would be one and taxation can be a usurpation of that right, your right to an abortion within a sane amount of time, your right to travel wherever you please, your right to ingest what you please as long as it doesn't harm others, and your right to enjoy yourself again as long as it does not harm others and involves consenting adults.
Compañero Karl I hope this clears things up for vous.
As for use of the word "marxist" I stand by it and would even argue that some in the GOP have marxist inclinations of their own. Perhaps others have cheapened its use but I am simply pointing it out as it pertain to the theories and practices not as some word used too insult those that simply don't agree with me.
CATO your analysis features two glaring omissions. You never mention the militarization of the US economy. $708 billion in Obama's budget for this year. Multi-billions more for the intelligence agencies hidden in the budget.
And you ignore the banks. Direct transfers of US tax dollars in the 100's of billions and the FED backstopping all the toxic loans still on their books to the tune of several TRILLION.
Do you do that intentionally because it doesn't fit with blaming a police officers salary and pension for the problems of the world?
Commissar Karl?
If I keep this up this will turn into a Manifesto.
"Bailout" infers any money given to private entities including banks and yes I find that abonimable as I said earlier.
Thank you for pointing out my ommission yes the military industrial complex is also a HUGE problem.
And though Police officers, firefighters and other government employee salaries and pensions may not be responsible for ALL the budgetary problems we now face, they are still part of the problem.
CATO, its just that you understate the matter when you use the word "bailout". This was the crime of the century and it was done out of desperation--the world capitalist economy was about to blow up. Legislators came out of their meeting with Hank Paulson ashen-faced because they were told either hand over the people's money or there would be marshall law in the United States of America.
ok, Cato, you make some good points, but cut the crap with the Marxist lingo. It detracts from the message.
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