Economic Freedom

Mississippi has been called the “moocher state” because it takes in more federal aid than it sends back to Washington, D.C. in taxes. The non-partisan Tax Foundation ranked Mississippi as the state most dependent on federal funds as a percentage of its revenues, with Louisiana second.

It’s been 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the Soviet Union.  Americans who witnessed those momentous events assumed communism had finally been consigned to the dustbin of history.  Not so fast, fast forward to 2019 and it’s déjà vu.  

America once again confronts communism, albeit a different strain with a quasi-capitalistic twist.  Now it is China.

It took less than 15 years for Facebook to rocket from a Harvard dorm room to one of the most valuable companies on the planet.  Now in just one week it has lost more than $52 billion in market value.  This begs several questions.  Do friends and friends of friends want to be surveilled?  Is a great company built on monetizing mountains of personal data through undisclosed means a sustainable business over the long term? 

An Unlikely Trust is a great read for history buffs and it also provides valuable context for our current economy that is wrestling with monopolistic behavior by tech titans such as Google, Facebook and Amazon.

It’s no secret that the Internet has become the world’s dominant communications network over the past two decades. It’s stunning rise to economic powerhouse has far surpassed the success of its precursor networks. In the process, a handful of mega tech companies have overwhelmed the regulatory structure intended to foster innovation, growth and a market place open to all competitors.

Good government may be an oxymoron because there’s too much of it. A good place to start whittling is on monopolies and their political enablers.