To blame the mere shortage of cash for the evils caused by incompetence and corruption is the favorite lie of socialists and crony capitalists everywhere. Socialists always say there is no problem of inequality or poverty that can’t be solved with cash.  It is cash alone that separates the rich from the poor- not talent or skill or hard work or thrift. Similarly, in the socialist view it is only access to capital that separates “greedy” and “monopolistic” (read “successful”) firms from the thousand flowers that would bloom if only the government would create a “level playing field” and “enforce competition.”

After the socialists becpme the government and begin evolving into crony capitalists, their favored beneficiaries- Soviet state-owned factories, Japanese banks, Fannie and Freddie in the United States- are always described as faultlessly devoted, idealistic, and hardworking, or at least essential.  If they underperform (and they always underperform), it is only because they are short of cash- which the government then always provides in some form or another.

From Panic by Andrew Redleaf and Richard Vigilante

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