Capitalism is an economic, political, and social system in which property, business, and industry are privately owned, directed toward the greatest possible profits for successful organizations and people.
Capitalism can be thought as a natural, free-market system whereby goods and services are exchanged between willing sellers and willing buyers who are unrestrained in their individual evaluations of the goods and services. Think: freedom to choose.
Crony capitalism is an economic system in which family members and friends of government officials and business leaders are given unfair advantages in the form of jobs, loans, etc.
1 Timothy 6:9-10 is an appropriate word picture for crony capitalism.
But those who [are not financially ethical and] crave to get rich [with a compulsive, greedy longing for wealth] fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction [leading to personal misery]. For the love of money [that is, the greedy desire for it and the willingness to gain it unethically] is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves [through and through] with many sorrows.
Tell-tale signs of crony capitalism are burdensome government regulations and wealth-eroding high taxes. President Trump, an honest-to-goodness free-market capitalist recognized the signs and he worked successfully to reduce taxes and cut government regulations.
Career politicians like Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi enjoy insider information that enables them to garner wealth at the expense of citizens outside their spheres of influence. A casual examination of the personal wealth of reveals inexplicable growth in wealth.
The H.R. 1: For the People Act of 2021is definitely not for the people outside the circles of influence.
Grab some popcorn, pull up a chair and watch the history of downfall of a once-great nation and compare the factors that inverted the fortunes of the common people while, even today, enriching the crony capitalists.
Candidate Barack Obama pledged to fundamentally change America. In 2008, American voters elected Obama and his pledge manifested as the unaffordable Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare, passed in the senate without even one Republican vote.
Almost a century earlier, in 1916, Argentine voters elected Hipólito Irigoyen who pledged fundamental change. The subsequent changes included mandatory social security, mandatory health insurance, and so-called ‘affordable housing’. Naturally, payroll taxes on the workers, the people who voted for Irigoyen. From 1917 to this day, Argentina has never recovered its former glory.
Business leaders and church leaders must labor to defeat H.R. 1. Passage of this disastrous legislation portends a socialist crony-capitalist society akin the situation in modern-day China where a handful of families enrich themselves at the expense of the freedoms and finances of the rest of the country.
John White
Rockwall, Texas
John N. White 