: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your MoneyPJTV presents an excellent exposition on the relationship between the environmentalist movement, big business, and the regulatory agencies of the federal government. (I cannot embed the 11 minute video directly onto this post, so click here to link to it.)
The standard public perception about big business and big government is that the two are always opposed, locked into an adversarial relationship. Not so. As Timothy Carney (in his excellent book quoted above) points out, the history of big government is the history of big business and vice versa. One complements the other as potential competitors are crowded out of or prevented entry into the market due to overly burdensome regulations and taxes. Thus, lower prices, higher quality, and more choices for the consumer leave the market, too.
Classical economists have long pointed out that in a strictly free, competitive environment, it is nearly impossible to build and maintain a monopoly over competitors. When the government is big enough and interventionist enough to squash out potential competitors, they will do so ostensibly for the public good.
Not all corporations are slimy monopolists colluding with the federal government. The ones that do not deserve respect and our business. The ones that do are certainly not worthy of the name "capitalists" for capitalism implies competitive and open pursuit of wealth in an open and free market, not cornering markets through covert manipulation of government regulatory agencies.
The broader point is that monopolies simply do not occur due to lack of regulation in a "free market capitalism"; they arise from and are solidified by excessive government intervention in the economy. And companies that play the game properly deserve the title of monopolists.
In context of this video, consider that former energy company Enron heavily lobbied government to sign onto the Kyoto Protocol--an international treaty rife with burdensome regulations on energy companies.
More recently and related to PJTV's Big Green topic, General Electric and numerous other corporations have spent millions lobbying Congress to pass the ominous Cap and Trade legislation.
