Forum Post: If you want money out of politics ...

If you want money out of politics, you have to eliminate the means by which money is useful in politics. In the US we have a system of crony capitalism where the gov picks winners and losers. OF COURSE people and corporations are going to try to lobby to get on the winner side of those picks.

The government can only pick winners and losers if we accept that it is OK for the government to do so either by creating regulations to damage competitors or by actively redistributing wealth from one entity to another. For example - want to talk about wealth redistribution? Talk about FARM subsidies. For Pete's sake - the farm subsidies and ethanol subsidies have driven the price of corn, and thus land, through the roof. When the government subsidy is taken away, and it will be eventually, imagine the absolute devastation that will take place on the farm land market. There is a farm land bubble right now. Land went for $1000 an acre just a little over a decade ago and now it is going for $10,000 an acre. All of the devastation that will follow is the direct result of the government picking a winner - people who grow corn. Forget the disaster that this government interference in the market will be for US citizens. Look at what the rising food prices are doing to the rest of the world. Regardless of whether you think 'green energy' is a laudable endeavor, when the government gets involved and picks a winner, bad shit eventually happens.

Here in lies the problem - if you are against the stealing of money from one entity and gifting it to another, you have to be consistent and I fear that OWS is not ready for or desirous of consistency.