Killing the Goose


Recommended Posts

Here is a good example of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124718265362620253.html

Any example of government policies that destroy companies, either directly or indirectly, or cause them to move away qualifies as a "Killing the Goose" story. For example, the pro union policies that destroyed (or nearly destroyed) the Detroit automakers qualifies a "Killing the Goose" story.

BTW, I was listening to the president of Creators Syndicate being interviewed on the radio. Apparently, the city of Los Angeles wants several hundred thousand dollars in "back taxes" and penalties and it filed a lien against Creator's Syndicate before even notifying it that they were going to seek higher tax payments retroactively. Since a lien can ruin a business's credit rating, it can make it impossible for the business to borrow money and thus make it impossible to run the business. In plain English, city officials are involved in extortion. The company president had to pay $100,000 up front to get the city to drop the lien and give him time to fight the city in court.

Darrell

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Darrell:

Government is extortion. Sometimes it is a vigorish* that is worth paying.

Main Entry:

vig·o·rish Pronunciation: \ˈvi-gə-rish\

Function: noun

Etymology: perhaps from Ukrainian vygrash or Russian vyigrysh winnings, profit

Date: 1912

1: a charge taken (as by a bookie or a gambling house) on bets ; also : the degree of such a charge <a vigorish of five percent>

2: interest paid to a moneylender

Or the old line "insurance" paid by businesses so they don't accidentally blow up or burn down.

We are headed towards a very unforgiving wall and I am afraid that the guy who just changed our brakes was an

affirmative action hire!

Adam

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, government is extortion. But I'm posting and looking for specific examples where it is easy to draw a line between government actions and the demise of or significant damage to particular companies.

Darrell

Darrell,

You are probably familiar with the damage to ALCOA Aluminum Co in the 1945 antitrust case which is mentioned in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. ALCOA anticipated increased demand for aluminum for the world war they saw coming. ALCOA increased its plant capacity to meet the demand they foresaw and helped the US "win." An antitrust suit was brought against them by companies who could not compete in the marketplace. In the final verdict the judge pointed out that because of ALCOA's productive ability it discouraged potential competitors from entering the market and ALCOA was penalized with treble damages to the tune of $145M. I think that meets your criteria of significant damage.

There is a resurgence of interest in pressing antitrust suits under Obama.

Dominick Armentano has written about the realities of the antitrust laws and Ayn Rand devoted the first issue of The Objectivist Newsletter to the antitrust phenomenon. In essence any business is vulnerable as the antitrust regulations will be violated if the business charges the same price or either a higher or a lower price for its product. Armentano has written The Myths of Antitrust and other books and essays which are enlightening on the subject. One cannot know in advance whether a particular business action will be in violation until after a judge rules. Truly non-objective laws at every level.

Closer to home I know of the case of the dozen Obstetricians in the Springfield area of MA who decided to exercise their contractual right to withdraw from Blue Cross. Their crime was that they had a meeting where the issue was discussed and then Blue Cross got the letters of resignation over the following few weeks. Blue Cross ran to the Attorney General of MA and complained and the antitrust suit was initiated on the grounds of collusion or the like. Never mind that the right to assemble is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights or that each operated on his own to withdraw in a manner spelled out in their individual contracts.

I believe that the suit was ultimately dropped but it must have been traumatic to have such a lawsuit brought against them and costly to hire lawyers to defend. Did I mention that if one offers a defense that the damages are tripled?

www.campaignforliberty.com 12 Jul 6 AM 180,846

gulch

Edited by galtgulch
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. "...that if one offers a defense that the damages are tripled?" Source please.

2. "Never mind that the right to assemble is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights or that each operated on his own to withdraw in a manner spelled out in their individual contracts.

The rules regulating conspiracy have nothing to do with the "right to assemble". No one has the right to assemble to conspire and/or collude to violate the "law".

Adam

Edited by Selene
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is an op-ed by Rick Newcombe, president and founder of Creators Syndicate.

http://www.creators.com/rsn-op-ed.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why We'll Leave L.A

By Rick Newcombe

If New Yorkers fantasize that doing business here in Los Angeles would be less of a headache, forget about it. This city is fast becoming a job-killing machine. It's no accident the unemployment rate is a frightening 11.4% and climbing.

I never could have imagined that, after living here for more than three decades, I would be filing a lawsuit against my beloved Los Angeles and making plans for my company, Creators Syndicate, to move elsewhere.

But we have no choice. The city's bureaucrats rival Stalin's apparatchiks in issuing decrees, rescinding them, and then punishing citizens for having followed them in the first place.

I founded Creators Syndicate in 1987, and we have represented hundreds of important writers, syndicating their columns to newspapers and Web sites around the world. The most famous include Hillary Clinton, who, like Eleanor Roosevelt, wrote a syndicated column when she was first lady. Another star was the advice columnist Ann Landers, once described by "The World Almanac" as "the most influential woman in America." Other Creators columnists include Bill O'Reilly, Susan Estrich, Thomas Sowell, Roland Martin and Michelle Malkin -- plus Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonists and your favorite comic strips.

From the beginning, we've been headquartered in Los Angeles. But 15 years ago we had a dispute with the city over our business tax classification. The city argued that we should be in an "occupations and professions" classification that has an extremely high tax rate, while we fought for a "wholesale and retail" classification with a much lower rate. The city forced us to invest a small fortune in legal fees over two years, but we felt it was worth it in order to establish the correct classification once and for all.

After enduring a series of bureaucratic hearings, we anxiously awaited a ruling to find out what our tax rate would be. Everything was at stake. We had already decided that if we lost, we would move.

You can imagine how relieved we were on July 1, 1994, when the ruling was issued. We won, and firmly planted our roots in the City of Angels and proceeded to build our business.

Everything was fine until the city started running out of money in 2007. Suddenly, the city announced that it was going to ignore its own ruling and reclassify us in the higher tax category. Even more incredible is the fact that the new classification was to be imposed retroactively to 2004 with interest and penalties. No explanation was given for the new classification, or for the city's decision to ignore its 1994 ruling.

Their official position is that the city is not bound by past rulings -- only taxpayers are. This is why we have been forced to file a lawsuit. We will let the courts decide whether it is legal for adverse rulings to apply only to taxpayers and not to the city.

We work with hundreds of outside agents, consultants, independent contractors and support services -- many of whom pay taxes to the city of Los Angeles. This spurs a job-creating ripple effect on the city's economy. Yet I suspect many companies like ours already have quietly left town in the face of the city's taxes and regulations. This would help explain the erosion of jobs.

Regardless of the outcome of our case, the arbitrary and capricious behavior of some bureaucrats is creating a lose-lose situation for everyone involved. If we win in court, the taxpayers of Los Angeles will have lost because all those tax dollars will have been wasted on needless litigation.

If we lose in court, the remaining taxpayers in Los Angeles will have lost because their burden will continue to swell as yet another business moves its jobs -- and taxpayers -- to another city.

As long as City Hall operates like a banana republic, why is anyone surprised that jobs have left the city in droves and Los Angeles is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barbara

P.S. Not long after the publication of The Passion of Ayn Rand, Rick Newcombe arranged for it to be syndicated in a number of newspapers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. "...that if one offers a defense that the damages are tripled?" Source please.

2. "Never mind that the right to assemble is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights or that each operated on his own to withdraw in a manner spelled out in their individual contracts.

The rules regulating conspiracy have nothing to do with the "right to assemble". No one has the right to assemble to conspire and/or collude to violate the "law".

Adam

Correct. In fact the 1-st amendment says there shall be no law to prevent peaceful assembly to petition the government for redress of grievance. This is not a general right to assemble. There are unlawful assemblies. For example assembling for the purpose of comitting a felony. That is a definite no-no.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Michael and Kat, "Killing the Goose" appears under Active Content, but not under View New Content????

Barbara,

I have looked around and I see no value at all in "View New Content." I have no idea what the IPB company was intending with this lame resource. I am going to try to get rid of it later and replace it with something that works right.

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are probably familiar with the damage to ALCOA Aluminum Co in the 1945 antitrust case which is mentioned in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. ALCOA anticipated increased demand for aluminum for the world war they saw coming. ALCOA increased its plant capacity to meet the demand they foresaw and helped the US "win." An antitrust suit was brought against them by companies who could not compete in the marketplace. In the final verdict the judge pointed out that because of ALCOA's productive ability it discouraged potential competitors from entering the market and ALCOA was penalized with treble damages to the tune of $145M. I think that meets your criteria of significant damage.

Yes. I am very familiar with that case.

There is a resurgence of interest in pressing antitrust suits under Obama.

Do you have any specific examples? I'd like to collect more.

Dominick Armentano has written about the realities of the antitrust laws and Ayn Rand devoted the first issue of The Objectivist Newsletter to the antitrust phenomenon. In essence any business is vulnerable as the antitrust regulations will be violated if the business charges the same price or either a higher or a lower price for its product.

This is an excuse for me to tell one of my favorite jokes. I don't remember where I heard it originally.

A guy is sent to jail and is placed in a cell with two others. He asks the first, "What are you in for?"

The first guy responds, "Price gouging. I set my prices higher than my competitors."

"Oh," says the new guy and he asks the second guy, "What are you in for?"

"Dumping," the second guy responds, "I set my prices lower than my competitors."

"Oh," says the new guy.

So, the other two ask him, "Well ... what are you in for?"

The the new guy answers, "Collusion. I set my prices the same as my competitors."

Darrell

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Darrell:

Essentially, when paper laws carpet a country, everyone is an outlaw.

We say in NY City that you cannot stand on a corner without violating some law.

Just the other day Superman was arrested in Times Square for panhandling without a license

and appearing in costume without a permit!

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07102009/news/regionalnews/biff__wham__pow__178573.htm

Adam

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have looked around and I see no value at all in "View New Content." I have no idea what the IPB company was intending with this lame resource. I am going to try to get rid of it later and replace it with something that works right.

I'm still missing "view new posts" of the old version.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try living in Chicago, Adam. I'm sure you realize even what we eat is monitored (like fois gras).

My cousin keeps me abreast of what a nightmare the little Daly has become. The stupidity of losing out

on the revenue for that Walmart Super Store, amazing.

As I told you, I have been in your wonderful City many many moons ago. A week wrapped around a speech convention in

the mid 60's. I was amazed at how clean the loop was.

Me being a NY City boy, I went off the beaten path into the back neighborhoods on the south side. Ahh, much nicer.

And the other time was not so nice as the "police riot" was occurring around me in 1968.

But today, I can only feel sad for how regulated my beloved City has become as well.

Adam

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ahem - this correcting my spelling is getting out of hand. Can I help it if I'm creative? The rest of you are simply jealous. Who can possibly respect anyone who can spell a word only one way?

Oh - Adam. The Loop is still spotless. That's because Herr Adolph Daly hires any possible crony to work an hour or two a day and collect a week's wages.

Ginny

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes Ginny:

A weaks wages - oops let me save dragonfly a correction...

Nah!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Darrell:

Essentially, when paper laws carpet a country, everyone is an outlaw.

We say in NY City that you cannot stand on a corner without violating some law.

Just the other day Superman was arrested in Times Square for panhandling without a license

and appearing in costume without a permit!

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07102009/news/regionalnews/biff__wham__pow__178573.htm

Adam

And let's not forget that NYPD apparently believes that failure to have an official ID is prima facie evidence of a crime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ginny:

Good one, never rush and type at the same time.

I am a political realist and there is a certain amount of "grease" that all political machines possess.

I will accept it as long as it is functional as to services delivered and very small because once it gets

past the ward level, then its like moving from High School ball to the majors.

His old man understood this, I do not believe this one has the instincts of his dad, but they both elected

President's, so maybe he is just more progressive.

From what I hear, noone has ever been able to testify to anything with his hand on it. Furthermore, supposedly

there is nothing that he does not know about.

If it is a myth, it sure looks good.

Adam

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, Ginny, I am sure that you will agree with me that once Eric Holder,

the man who brought us that charming picture of a Federal trooper with his

assault weapon trained on Elian Rodriguez, who just graduated one of those

great schools in Cuba, will immediately investigate baby Daly while he is

investigating Dick Cheney and the S.E.A.L. teams while he dismantles the Central

Intelligence Agency.

Now there is a run on sentence. I will wait for dragonfly's corrections under the

affirmative action program for the grammatically challenged.

Adam

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you mean Holder, dragonfly, or Daly?

Where is that fourth horseman?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now