A Twofer! First: “Even the failure and disintegration of socialism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union has not led to a clear response to the next question: if government ownership of the means of production is so bad, why is government regulation of the private means of production so good?”
-Richard Epstein (Simple Rules for a Complex World)
And I’m quite sure that the Statists will start whining about work conditions, pay, safety, and all the rest. Valid, but only to a point especially if you contrast the times of the 1890s – 1930s. But now? Even with the WuFlu, teachers do not work in “dangerous” conditions (well, if the urban School Admins would take the bull by the horns and stop the environment in which students feel free in taking swings at them – and getting away with it because EQUITY! DIVERSITY!).
Second – Prof. Don Boudreaux:
Ownership, after all, is a bundle of decision-making rights over property along with claims on the value of the property. And so what matters is not who has formal title to these rights and claims but, rather, who actually possesses these rights and claims. Ideally, those with formal title to the rights and claims are the same people as those who possess the decision-making rights.
If decision-making rights over property are separated from the rights to claims on the value of the property, then irresponsible decision-makers are underfoot. Jones decides how the factory is used while Smith enjoys any resulting increase in the factory’s value and suffers any resulting decrease in the factory’s value. It’s difficult to believe that Jones will be a good – a responsible – decision-maker regarding the factory given that Jones does not experience a key response to his or her decisions.
And now the question:
At what point do Government regulations become so onerous that the owners of the company lose control of it just as if someone steals an operational majority of the company?
If Government is setting all the rules that must be followed, regardless of whether or not it aids in its primary missions (which is to make a profit for the owners), who really owns the company?
The Democrat Socialists of America and OccupyWallStreet made it very clear – they had no problems in the workers taking a company and “democratically” making all the decisions (yeah, like that worked out so well in the Soviet Union).
Owners would be pushed out after it was THEIR ideas, THEIR sweat equity, THEIR decision making, and THEIR financial wherewithal that made a company a success. THEY built it – and not Senator Elizabeth “You didn’t build that” Warren.
The “stakeholder” movement is exactly what Boudreaux is talking about – those that have NO downside to decisions they are all but mandating upon the owners ARE trying to do exactly what shouldn’t happen – effectively take control of the company.
Venture Capitalist/hedge funds are now doing this for all kinds of reasons (re: ESG) that are now forcing companies if they want access to capital to grow the business, to start supporting every Left-wing wet dream in their business plans.
Or, like firearms companies and sellers – being complete shutout of the financial system under Operation Choke Point 2.0 because they are ill-favored businesses according to the Left.
Ownership – why bother doing a startup when you know that you’d lose control? Its one reason why I would never start a Daycare center again – Government has all but made it impossible to run an effective one at a profit. Yet, Sununu keeps yelping about how badly those services are needed?
See the pattern? Create lots of new regulations, listen to owners saying they can’t stay in business, they start to close down, and then GOVT declares “IT’S A CRISIS! WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT”, and then states “IT’S A FAILURE OF THE MARKETPLACE”.
And then finishes off the move in crowding out the rest of the private means of production and setting up Govt run daycares. Paid, not by the private sector but by your taxes. After all, those miserable owners didn’t pay their staffs “a living wage” (mostly because of expensive regulations; starting to see this death spiral circle that was set up?) and benefits, so WE, the Beneficent Government, will make EVERYONE’S lives better.
But the cost is never part of the equation and no one ever talks about the Right To Private Property that was just taken away.
Think I’m kidding about the crowd out? Look at what happened to the old-style voluntary Charities and what they have become since Progressives decided to enforce their rule that the only provider of Good Things is Government…
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
