Daniel Greenfield writes in Sultan Knish, Government Money, 3/17/13

Excerpts:

And still some of the most greediest and most abusive companies, were invariably either created by the government or operate in close partnership with it. HMO’s were created by the government. Banks fed off Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s subsidized mortgages like vultures. Do we really need to discuss insurance companies, defense contractors or Sallie Mae. AT&T is considered one of the worst companies in America, and it’s also one of the biggest political donors. Is there a connection there? Only that companies close to the government don’t need to worry as much about what the public thinks of them. Hate the airlines? They’ve both been overregulated and subsidized into incompetence. Airlines have been bailed out and protected from competition too many ways to count, because of the unions riding on their coattails. And those unions are destroying airline after airline, while the non-union airlines prosper.

It’s easy enough to go down the list, but why bother. Suffice it to say that American business is looking a lot like Soviet business did, full of companies with contempt for their customers, and an unctuous smile for the government. They know where the money is coming from. And in an era of cut throat price competition, and high labor and regulation costs, it’s just easier for them to extract the public’s money by going over their heads to the politicians. It’s no longer a free market in which individuals make economic choices, but a collective economy with governments fixing prices and then turning around and taking more of your money to pay back the companies.

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