You may have heard or read that in the US and in Australia the right wing parties are campaigning to maintain coal and to over-regulate renewables. There are plenty of news items to this effect, especially after Rick Perry’s recent announcements – which may or may not become law, but reflect the general campaign.
Some libertarians, or idealist capitalists, actually object to this, and express surprise that it is happening…
For what its worth I think it is worth repeating that, historically, this is how capitalism always works.
Politics and power can shape markets, therefore players in markets will compete to shape markets through politics to gain advantage in those markets. That seems to be an inevitable road that established businesses will take to defend both their establishment and profitability.
In a situation in which capitalism is made the only good (as in neoliberalism or libertarianism), this is unpreventable. Politicians depend on business for campaign funds and support, so business ends up buying politics, and there is no surviving power base with which to reliably curtail business influence – because of business opposition to unions etc.
As established businesses tend to be the wealthy well connected businesses, they tend to have an advantage, and this is called conservatism 🙂
Tags: climate change, free markets, technology
Climate, technology and chaos Blog 
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