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Wednesday, June 9, 2010

I'm shocked, shocked to find rent-seeking going on in here!

BP, the Progressive-Friendly Profiteer.

Lobbying records show that BP is no free-market crusader, but instead a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company’s bottom line.

While BP has resisted some government interventions, it has lobbied for tax hikes, greenhouse gas restraints, the stimulus bill, the Wall Street bailout, and subsidies for oil pipelines, solar panels, natural gas and biofuels.

Sad but true, it happens all the time.

Posted via web from rhymeswithclown's posterous

1 comment:

D said...

Precisely. I have yet to come across a cogent argument for any regulation. Most don't understand what regulations are; pure oligarchical mechanisms.
Those who support regulations fail to understand that regulations don't just hurt the small businesses that must pay the additional cost or go home. It hurts the consumer who may pay a higher price from one of the remaining giants.
Mostly, people don't understand how many companies never came into existence at all due to these costs.
In the end, this process leads people to call for even more government intervention, this time to protect them from 'unfair' foreign competition and to 'tax' US companies leaving the Land of the Fr--- Taxation in order to continue producing.
A healthy combination of ignoring the unseen and Greedy Bastard Economics continues unabated.