Keeping the rich rich

I suggest reading the whole article at the following link:

http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2014/05/keeping-the-rich-rich.html

Andrew Lilico says:

I would prefer a system in which the wealthy were allowed to lose their money if their investments go bad, in which the state does not intervene in the economy to keep the rich rich. I grant that we do not have such a political system now – the bank bailouts of 2008 and since have made that clear to everyone.

The bailouts, though, are only a small part of the story here. There are countless other ways in which the state helps keep the rich rich, for example:

- The state enforces property relations, including intellectual property rights. "Private property cannot survive without the guarantee of government" says Ferdinand Mount, who's hardly a rabid leftie. This guarantee, though, is asymmetric; if you have a troublesome tenant, the police might turn up mob-handed. But if you have trouble with your phoneline, they are unlikely to raid BT's offices.

- Planning restrictions help to keep house prices high, to be the benefit of landlords, and help to maintain local near-monopolies for example by restricting the number of retailers in an area.

- Government spending is a form of corporate welfare. At its best, it helps sustain demand for capitalist products. And at its worst - for example in overpaying for military equipment, paying for welfare-to-work programmes that don't work or just outright fraud - it gives capitalists something for nothing.

- The ordinary welfare state helps the rich too. Most obviously, housing benefit subsidizes landlords. But it's also the case that welfare benefits help underpin and stabilize aggregrate demand, and help to maintain a supply of labour, all of which benefits capitalists.

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