The 'American System'
We are living under the dystopian evolution of the Hamilton-Clay-Lincoln “American System” which is a perverse and not at all liberty-like economic and political model which enmesh the rich and affluent with the mechanisms and levers of government.
This is the antithesis of populism. It is the antithesis of liberty. It is the basis of why the system we now live under is corrupt and wholly contemptible. Here we will take a look at where our crony capitalism all began and who has inherited the throne.
What this “American System” did was it took the US government and turned it into a subsidy machine for those already affluent interest groups at the expense of everyone else.
Edgar Lee Masters, in ‘Lincoln the Man’, outlined this idea very well. He stated that “Clay was the Champion of that political system which doles favors to the strong in order to win and keep their adherence to the government.”
Henry Clay was in many respects the inheritor of the ideas and corrupt practices of Alexander Hamilton, whose funding schemes, and ideas about taxing regular people to make profits for the businesses and risky enterprises of the elites that could not stand alone without said subsidy.
What this has done is to create a whole class of wealthy politician whose whole career has been to dole out subsidized (your money) favors to other wealthy elites in order to further centralize power, both political and economic.
Hamilton swore public debt would be a “public blessing”, outlining that the rich would buy this debt (bonds) and in turn be bound to the fruitful success and good nature of the federal government who would in turn always pay off the interest on the bonds.
However, what this has all done is given free money to those whose secondary and tertiary economic and business ideas would have never stood on their own in a true free market.
Lincoln did this to an extent not seen before him with the heavily subsidized transcontinental railroad corporations which gave near unlimited funds (taxpayer dollars) to millionaires to become far richer than any men before them.
The economist Murray Rothbard defined this years later as a political front for a cabal of subsidy-seeking corporate titans. What these titans proposed, and succeeded in getting, was “to organize and head a central bank, to provide cheap credit and expanded money for himself (Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance during the American Revolution and known as ‘Financier of the Revolution’) and his allies.”
This was nothing more than British Mercantilism, the very system the colonists rebelled against, just with the British replaced by Colonial Elites. Thomas Jefferson was wholly against such a system and considered it an outrage that the states were adopting the very system they had fought a revolution to escape from.
John Taylor of Virginia spoke of this ‘American System’ as “undoubtedly the best which has ever appeared for extracting money from the people... No equal mode of enriching the party of government, and impoverishing the party of the people, has ever been discovered.”
Look today at those who run such a system. The abusers in Congress who are worth millions yet whose salary couldn’t account for 1/20th of their wealth.
John Kerry is worth nearly $250million. Nancy Pelosi is worth $120million dollars. The Clintons are also worth some $120million dollars. Mitt Romney is worth $85million. Chuck Schumer is worth $70million. Mitch McConnell is worth $34million. Starting to see a pattern?
So, aside from laundering YOUR money for their pockets, who are they handing favors too? Let’s look at the Green Energy Industry, an industry that COULDN’T exist without the government. It isn’t efficient, it isn’t cost effective, and it can’t support the grid.
Yet in 2016 59% of estimated allocations of Energy-Related Tax Preferences went to Renewable Energy, nearly $11billion! These aren’t profitable industries, far from it. They SURVIVE on subsidies.
During the Obama and Bush administrations alone, there were a list of 50 major companies receiving the bulk of renewable subsidies. 23 went bankrupt, 27 were considered “troubled” by industry standards, and 29 of the 50 (60%) were noted to be crony owned business.
Solyndra*: Received $535 million DOE loan and $25.1 million in California tax credit. Bankrupt: September 2011
Abound Solar*: Received part of a $60 million grant under the Bush administration and was awarded a $400 million loan under Obama in December of 2010. Abound was awarded a $9.2-million loan from the Export-Import Bank in July 2011. Bankrupt: June 2012
Beacon Power*: Received more than $25 million in DOE grants and a DOE loan for $43 million. Bankrupt: October 2011
A123 Systems*: Received $390 million, of which $249 million of it was a Recovery Act Grant. Filed for Bankruptcy October 16, 2012, and two companies are seeking to buy A123; Johnson Controls and the Chinese firm Wanxiang Group Corp.
AES Eastern Energy/Energy Storage*: Received $17.1 million DOE conditional commitment on August 2, 2010. Bankrupt: December 31, 2011.
Amonix*: Received $6 million in federal tax credits a $15.6 million grant from the DOE for research and development. Bankrupt: July 18, 2012.
Azure Dynamics*: Received millions in stimulus funds and over $1.7 million in Michigan state tax credits. Bankrupt: March 27, 2012
Babcock & Brown: Received $178 million in the largest federal (1603) stimulus wind grant in December 2009. Placed into voluntary liquidation: March 13, 2009
Energy Conversion Devices Inc./Uni-Solar: Received a $13.3 million Stimulus tax credit. Bankrupt: February 2011.
Ener1*: Received a $118.5 million DOE Stimulus grant. Bankrupt: January 26, 2011.
And this is just the top 10.
Let’s look at Ukraine. We (the taxpayer) have given $54billion to Ukraine, 2/3 of the State Departments budget for the entire year! US aid goes to NGOs in Kiev which are run the establishment.
Billions are sent to Ukraine through US AID; who is in charge of US AID? Democrat Samantha Power, senior advisor to Barack Obama.
The Ukrainian Human Rights Organization Center for Civil Liberties receives funding. The largest private donor in the creation of this organization: George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. The largest public donors for its initial creation: The European Commission and the US State Department.
Hunter Biden, with no energy experience, was a senior member of a Ukrainian energy conglomerate known for money laundering. Hunter is documented to have received $3million from this company. Joe Biden is on camera acknowledging he threatened further aid to Ukraine unless the prosecutor investigating the company was fired. The prosecutor was promptly fired.
The ‘American System’ as practiced by the elite is corrupt. It is not for the average American. It is not for the man and woman on Main Street. It is for the already rich and already wealthy on Wall Street. It is for the corrupt who seek to bleed the common folk dry.
Be Kind To Your Neighbors.