In a revelation that will come as a surprise to very few who are educated enough to know how our current crony capitalist system works, a new study due to come out this fall has found that the average citizen in the United States has virtually zero impact on public policy or those who create it. From The Hill:

The new study, with the jaw-clenching title of “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens,” is forthcoming in the fall 2014 edition of Perspectives on Politics. Its authors, Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University, examined survey data on 1,779 national policy issues for which they could gauge the preferences of average citizens, economic elites, mass-based interest groups and business-dominated interest groups. They used statistical methods to determine the influence of each of these four groups on policy outcomes, including both policies that are adopted and rejected. The analysts found that when controlling for the power of economic elites and organized interest groups, the influence of ordinary Americans registers at a “non-significant, near-zero level.” The analysts further discovered that rich individuals and business-dominated interest groups dominate the policymaking process. The mass-based interest groups had minimal influence compared to the business-based interest groups. The study also debunks the notion that the policy preferences of business and the rich reflect the views of common citizens. They found to the contrary that such preferences often sharply diverge and when they do, the economic elites and business interests almost always win and the ordinary Americans lose.

This news plays into the hands of liberals, who will decry the rich and the impact of big business on public policy. However, this is a position that begs them to look in the mirror as proponents of big government. The larger and more intrusive government gets, the more expanded its powers of regulation, thus allowing more opportunity for big business to influence how those regulations are applied and to whom.

Crony capitalism is only possible through coercive government. Vast amounts of money – via both legal campaign contributions and under the table as bribes and promises – are gifted to politicians to grease the wheels, and lobbyists are a constant force in D.C., outnumbering congressmen 25-1. Big business and the vastly wealthy both take part in the process of skewing government policy but they are only capable of doing so by virtue of either the complacency of the populace, or by trusting in the misconception that somehow a coercive government is capable of responsible oversight and policy making.

Business needs to exist in the free market, where government influence can’t be wielded to give the favored businesses an advantage, or punish those who don’t play moneyball in the D.C. cesspool. Without state interference, businesses are forced to thrive or die on the basis of delivering goods to consumers in the best possible way.

For a deeper look at how big business manipulates the economy via crony capitalism, check out Marc Clair’s interview with Hunter Lewis on the subject.



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