When the Government Picks Winners and Losers, Capitalism becomes “Crapitalism”

And usually, the taxpayers end up paying the tab, because politicians as a group are terrible at deciding which businesses “deserve” help. That’s what free markets are for. What a great term coined by John Stossel. Spread it around.

Capitalism is great because it lets entrepreneurs raise money so they can scale up and get their products and services to more people. If there is free competition, innovators with the best ideas raise the most money, and the best and cheapest products spread far and wide.

But it’s crapitalism when politicians give your tax money and other special privileges to businesses that are “most deserving of help.” Often those businesses turn out to be run by politicians’ cronies.

Many government agencies feed this crony capitalism. When there is scandal, such as when the Energy Department lost $500 million on Solyndra, we hear about it. But often we don’t. You probably didn’t know about the department’s other fat losses on businesses like Solar One, the Triad ethanol plant, FutureGen, the Clinch River Breeder Reactor and so on.

Read the rest of Stossel’s article at “Crapitalism!” | Right Wing News.