Al Gore - The Pied Piper Profiteer of the Global Warming Scam

Al Gore stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars in "green" technology, and I don't begrudge him success. Capitalism works when you provide a needed product or service to the market. The problem is that Al Gore's success isn't coming from needed products or services, but rather from his political connection, as he connives, cajoles, and schemes to have his buddies in the government force us to use Al Gore-approved solutions to non-existent problems. That's not capitalism, it's shameless profiteering, and hypocritical to boot. I wonder if all those lefty enviromentalists who decry any opposition to their agenda as "oil-company shills" will notice just how much Al Gore stands to profit from their sheep-like support?

“That’s not capitalism, it’s shameless profiteering

Well, it’s “crony capitalism” so I think in Al Gore’s book, he viewed it as perfectly legitimate. It’s the same form of “capitalism” worshipped by Obama and his cronies. In their eyes, competition and profits are a great thing so long as they’re in power to tip the scales in favor of their cronies. Otherwise, profits are evil (or at best a necessary evil whose size is best managed by diverting “excess profits” to government) and those who pursue them scum.

“We used to call that “Corruption”.

I still remember being taught in college about big city machine politics. The professor emphasized how much more “efficient” these cities were, i.e., a little petty graft helped “grease the wheels” of government, thereby making sure things got done. It was clear that the take-home lesson was: forget about conventional morality. Examined through the lens of “functionality”, what some might view as corrupt simply made government work better, so what’s the big deal?

I was appalled and didn’t find this line of thinking particularly convincing, but I have no doubt this is the “sophisticated” view of the world held by Obama and his minions. To the victor go the “spoils”—whether this be jobs for cronies, contracts for cronies, or any other conceivable form of graft for cronies. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

This world view conforms perfectly to the deals Obama cut with doctors (you support health reform, we’ll cut you $250 billion in slack on scheduled cuts in physician fees), pharma (you support health reform, and we’ll limit the damage we’ll do to you otherwise) etc. It also explains why Blago sincerely does not believe himself to be a crook: “pay-to-play” was so embedded in the Chicago political culture that in his view, it was “understood” that any favors he dispensed should be rewarded with a commensurate amount of “consideration.”

Actually, this is “crony socialism” because it uses the power and force of the government to enrich the cronies, not “crony capitalism” which relies on the preferential treatment between generally private capital entities (even if “public” companies) and which is closer to nepotism.

Crony socialism claims many more victims than crony capitalism ever did, due to its governmental / collectivist nature and far bigger scale of “legalized” corruption.

In capitalist societies, there are many legitimate and meritorious ways to prosper or live well, so private sector, non-government corruption is a relatively small, and highly visible, part of life. In socialist societies the cronyism and corruption is the only way to get ahead, and so it becomes the way of life.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.