There are No Atheists in Foxholes or Republicans when they are handing out Subsidies

Eli,

The cries increase to stop the US Government from going over the cliff. The major broadcast and cable networks are in high dudgeon over the Republican resistance to giving Obama more money to spend. Reminds me of the kid throwing a tantrum in the candy store over not getting another lollipop.

Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks has joined other CEO's to urge Congress the Fix the Debt. Krugman hates it, so there is clearly something to be said for the group.

But there is something to Krugman's skepticism. One of my former bosses used to say, "There are no atheists in foxholes, nor Republicans when they are handing out subsidies." He also warned me more than once about visiting certain businessman to make sure I still had my wallet before I left the meeting.

Milton Friedman understood this quite well. The video below is short and typical Friedman. He articulates his support for free markets and distinguishes it from supporting business. (There is the added benefit of hearing him agree with Jane Fonda! No kidding). In one of his more famous remarks he states, “With some notable exceptions, businessmen favor free enterprise in general but are opposed to it when it comes to themselves.”

Businesses, large and small, want the special favors and protection that government can offer. The tragedy of administrations like George W. Bush and Obama (Bush I, II, III, IV) is they make a business out of granting favors to their anointed ones (Halliburton, Solyndra). Big businesses and Big Government wins. Small businesses loses, consumers lose, liberty loses. (I know, I know, you define liberty as the ability to force me to pay for Sandra Fluke's birth control, so you think liberty wins. But in the non-1984 world, liberty, as M-W defines it, loses). Why is bank concentration greater after Dodd-Frank? Why do the insurance companies and drug companies support Obamacare? You bemoan (often) the horrors of the 1800's but you never seem to see the similarities between the corruption of the post-civil war government and our current iteration.

Bill