Chris
07-05-2012, 06:22 PM
The angry Americans (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-zingales-ows-tea-party-attitude-20120705,0,2538429.story)
...The tea party and the Occupy movement both arose in response to pervasive frustration. As we've grown accustomed to hearing in recent years, Americans are angry. They're angry at bankers, who helped cause the financial crisis but paid no price for it. They're angry at Washington, which blamed the bankers but deserved as much blame, if not more, for failing to rein them in. And they're angry at an economy that seems to enrich the wealthy while leaving most everyone else standing still or falling behind.
This anger manifests itself in a strong anti-elite bias and a determination to resist an oppressive leviathan — though the monster takes different forms in the two movements. For the tea party, it's the federal government in Washington; for Occupy, it's bailout-addicted big business.
The difference is more apparent than real. The problem is not big business per se but monopolistic and politically powerful business. It is not government per se but intrusive and corrupt government. ...
It is both, and it's called crony capitalism. But here's the thing. While it's both, business is a necessary cause, government a sufficient one. And what is business doing but what anyone would do, taking the easier route, the political means over the economic, to greater wealth. Who provides the political means, government, which trades special interests favors for ever more power. Power corrupts.
...The tea party and the Occupy movement both arose in response to pervasive frustration. As we've grown accustomed to hearing in recent years, Americans are angry. They're angry at bankers, who helped cause the financial crisis but paid no price for it. They're angry at Washington, which blamed the bankers but deserved as much blame, if not more, for failing to rein them in. And they're angry at an economy that seems to enrich the wealthy while leaving most everyone else standing still or falling behind.
This anger manifests itself in a strong anti-elite bias and a determination to resist an oppressive leviathan — though the monster takes different forms in the two movements. For the tea party, it's the federal government in Washington; for Occupy, it's bailout-addicted big business.
The difference is more apparent than real. The problem is not big business per se but monopolistic and politically powerful business. It is not government per se but intrusive and corrupt government. ...
It is both, and it's called crony capitalism. But here's the thing. While it's both, business is a necessary cause, government a sufficient one. And what is business doing but what anyone would do, taking the easier route, the political means over the economic, to greater wealth. Who provides the political means, government, which trades special interests favors for ever more power. Power corrupts.