We’re working to pay off all the government enabled rent seekers, starting with land rent, sales of natural resources, intellectual property, government licensed occupations and industries, and finally, government workers themselves. And then we’re working under regulatory regimes that cripple productive capacity and destroy wealth.
So yes, people are a lot more productive, but there is little of the wealth they produce left for them after the rent seekers have taken their cut and the bureaucracy has finished flushing most of the leftovers down the toilet.
Are you claiming that corporations like Microsoft don’t have huge rent-seeking elements that have little to do with “government” regulation? Or that those rent-seeking elements (i.e. elements that optimize away the production of utility for society in lieu of utility for themselves) don’t include top executives, huge PR/advertising departments and such?
If e.g. a global supermarket chain reached an agreement with its several “competitors” (and I use the word loosely) to “set industry standards of team-building” (use a unified strategy of emotional manipulation towards personnel, like paternalism and engendering status competition), “share information on human resources” (spy on potential troublemakers’ conversations, blogs, etc), “work closely and productively with unions” (keep local union leadership on a short leash to avoid dangerous examples while throwing bones like “gender awareness”) and “maintain a healthy relationship with the media” (no explanation needed) -
-would it really need a large government lobby to cover its ass while doing all that, even in today’s America? Indeed, I believe that they’re already doing much of this all over the world.
Your scenario presumes that said cartel covers all the corporations in the industry, otherwise employees would go to places with better working conditions, unless the the places with worse working conditions paid more to compensate.
That was my attempt to describe what is essentially a 3-dimensional labor supply function in words, hope it wasn’t to confusing.
We’re working to pay off all the government enabled rent seekers, starting with land rent, sales of natural resources, intellectual property, government licensed occupations and industries, and finally, government workers themselves. And then we’re working under regulatory regimes that cripple productive capacity and destroy wealth.
So yes, people are a lot more productive, but there is little of the wealth they produce left for them after the rent seekers have taken their cut and the bureaucracy has finished flushing most of the leftovers down the toilet.
Are you claiming that corporations like Microsoft don’t have huge rent-seeking elements that have little to do with “government” regulation? Or that those rent-seeking elements (i.e. elements that optimize away the production of utility for society in lieu of utility for themselves) don’t include top executives, huge PR/advertising departments and such?
If e.g. a global supermarket chain reached an agreement with its several “competitors” (and I use the word loosely) to “set industry standards of team-building” (use a unified strategy of emotional manipulation towards personnel, like paternalism and engendering status competition), “share information on human resources” (spy on potential troublemakers’ conversations, blogs, etc), “work closely and productively with unions” (keep local union leadership on a short leash to avoid dangerous examples while throwing bones like “gender awareness”) and “maintain a healthy relationship with the media” (no explanation needed) -
-would it really need a large government lobby to cover its ass while doing all that, even in today’s America? Indeed, I believe that they’re already doing much of this all over the world.
Your scenario presumes that said cartel covers all the corporations in the industry, otherwise employees would go to places with better working conditions, unless the the places with worse working conditions paid more to compensate.
That was my attempt to describe what is essentially a 3-dimensional labor supply function in words, hope it wasn’t to confusing.