Sam Wilkin Quotes
Spin laws into gold.
He observes that many of the richest people and businesses are those who have lobbied for laws that either enrich them or hinder their competitors. Reduced regulations turn into "gold" on several ways: The company no longer has the administrative cost of complying with the regulations—thus increasing their profits. At the same time often the regulation prevents taking advantage of consumers or other businesses and when repealed, the company can go back to the pre-regulation era and obtain more business or higher prices, both of which increase profits—gold.
Sam Wilkin, Business Economist, Wealth Secrets of the One Percent, 2015
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
He was referring to many of the tax earmarks and other tax legislation that in effect give funds to specific organizations or kinds of organizations or for those who engage in certain activities or sometimes just to favorite organziations. A tax credit or deduction is from a balanced budgetary perspective is no different from a subsidy.
The Kimberly and Comstock lodes were natural deposits of copper and silver so close to the surface that it required very little work to remove the metal and sell the it.
What is interesting is at the time and today there are few politicians who would not agree completely, including all the members of Congress. Yet every word of the absurdly complex and unfair tax law was written and passed by some Congress and signed by some President. Congress could change it any time it wants to. The problem is that ut while all agree that the status quo is terrible, there is no agreement on what the correct solution would be, and any proposed change would be assaulted by the lobbyists of the special interests who benefit from the status quo. In that sense it is just like Health Care Reform. When a change is finally crafted and achieves a majority of Congress, each change has been trashed by so many vested interest that the public is not sure the reform will be better then the terrible system that existed before.
This criticism of business has been made ever since by many opposed to protectionism, corporate welfare, subsidies, and bailouts. Yet they get bigger each decade.
Much if the American industrial revolution was assisted by government subsidies of one kind or another. Railroads, telegraph, armaments, foundries are just a few.
While this is a common complaint in the American political dialogue at the beginning of the 21st century, it is interesting that this was the conclusion of a foreign political scholar studying that period—one who was generally a great admirer of America.
She was then the European Commissioner for Competition.
She was criticizing special interest tax breaks which, in reality, meant that all the taxpayer were investing money in the recipients of the tax breaks who almost always had more than enough investment capital without the tax breaks.
Sherman was a member of the House Finance Committee that would have to initiate any tax bill. Most of the Republicans of that time had signed a pledge to have no new taxes and that was interpreted as no closing of tax loopholes. So they blocked all attempts at closing tax loopholes when they controlled the house or had a filibuster minority of the Senate. However in the few years that they did not, the Democrats had “more important” legislation like health care reform that they wanted to use their majority position for. The result was no closure of tax loopholes—even the egregious ones that a majority of Congress wanted closed and almost all the people did. The particular Congress when Sherman made this statement was the worst Congress in American History in terms of the few laws that the polarized Congress could pass.
