The-Morality-of-Capitalism-PDF

That’s a form of crony capitalism. The rules are not being appliedequally to everyone. And that means that the power to give awaiver also means the power to deny one. And you can deny itto those who aren’t making the proper donations to the politicalparty in power or who you just, for whatever reason, you don’tfavor. You have an arbitrary law that you can selectively apply tosome and not to others.Second, I see crony capitalism right now in all of these subsidiesthat are going into “green technology,” for example. They’resubsidizing some businesses and, ultimately, since the governmentdoesn’t have any money on its own, it’s taking it from taxpayersand redistributing it to people who are politically favored. I seewhat’s happening with General Electric now, in terms of thekind of taxes they’re paying, with all the special exemptions anddeductions that get written into the tax laws. And since they’reso heavily into these alternative energy technologies, or some ofthem, they’re getting to a point where they do not have to paytaxes on most of their income, just because they’re politicallyconnected. So it offends me. I think it’s a very bad thing.Palmer: Would you call it immoral?Mackey: Yes, I would. Immoral . . . well, I call it immoral. Butthen you get to the point of having to define what that means.It certainly violates my ethics and my sense of right and wrong.Whether that violates other people’s ethics or not, it’s hard tosay. I certainly don’t like it. I’m opposed to it. It’s not compatiblewith my idea of how society should be governed. That sort ofthing shouldn’t happen in a society that has a strong rule of law.Palmer: Who do you see as the main gainers from the free-marketcapitalism that you embrace?Mackey: Everyone! Everyone in society is a beneficiary. It is whathas lifted much of humanity out of poverty. It’s what made thiscountry wealthy. We were dirt poor. America was a land of opportunity,but it was not a wealthy country. Even though Americasurely hasn’t been perfect, it’s enjoyed one of the freest markets23