Burying the Big Myth

Many people believe that government and business are warring factions, and that political parties typically align with one or the other. But the truth, as Timothy P. Carney points out in his new book, is that big business is often in bed with big government and that both Republicans and Democrats have helped forge a partnership that consistently rips off ordinary Americans.

Carney’s new book, The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money, exposes this nasty partnership in detail—from Boeing subsidies to Ethanol mandates—and shows just how taxpayers lose their money and their voice in Washington.

Carney, currently a fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, calls the idea that big business wants a smaller government “the big myth,” but as a myth it is not borne out by the facts. He explains that even in 1935, New Dealer FDR was seen as an enemy of big business, despite the Chamber of Commerce and other businesses’ SUPPORT of New Deal expansion.

But the myth persists today. The fall of Enron was called a failure of “anarchic capitalism,” Carney explains, but really Enron flourished under heavy regulation (which it lobbied for) and constantly asked for government handouts. People viewed the lawsuits against Big Tobacco as a government crusade against big business, but in the book, Carney exposes the intricate settlement agreement that ensures that companies like Phillip Morris USA stay in business and squash their competition, all with the help of the government.

So how is this counterintuitive scenario possible and why should you care?

Carney, a contributing editor for Human Events conservative weekly newspaper, and former political reporter for syndicated columnist Robert Novak, gives you the breakdown of how it happens and gives you reasons to care in Ripoff.

The short answer is that politicians have the power to help or hinder businesses, so businesses come to the source of power to ensure that their profits continue to increase. It’s a nasty game, but if companies don’t play they lose. Microsoft was rebuked by politicians in Washington several years ago because Bill Gates did not want to play politics, Carney recounts. So now, companies play, and you lose.

You lose, “because government action doesn’t create wealth–it redistributes it. This mean’s Enron’s government-aided profits come from somewhere—you,” he writes.

Carney explains the many ways the government robs you: through subsidies, mandates, targeted tax breaks, prohibitions, eminent domain takings, bailouts, loans and loan forgiveness, as well as regulations. And each time it happens, “we all sacrifice a little bit of our freedom” he says.

“…if the government starts restricting our freedom to benefit somebody else—somebody we don’t think deserves it—we ought to be upset because the restrictions have a real cost. Government action makes us poorer and less free. On a strictly economic level, government action almost always reduces the net wealth of society.”

So if you want to know how Enron happened, why your Coke is made from high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar, how the cartelization of the tobacco industry occurred, and the criticisms of ethanol, you should definitely pick up a copy of The Big Ripoff. Perhaps then you won’t fall into the trap of believing “the big myth” anymore.

Julia A. Seymour is a staff writer for Accuracy in Academia.