Big Business vs. Free Markets

Thanks to Jonah Goldberg for highlighting this very important distinction.  Our enthusiasm and support should be for the latter, not the former.:

...Since the Progressive era, American liberals have been in favor of some variant of corporatism or industrial policy. The idea stretching from Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson through FDR, JFK, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton to now is that the government is smart enough to pick winning industries and technologies. You know, like Solyndra. 

There’s a huge difference between being pro-business and pro-free market. The government’s role in the free market is to keep it free and fair, not to play favorites.  When government takes it upon itself to be the ally of business, certain biases often take over. For instance, existing industries have a huge advantage over ones that haven’t been created yet. A more obvious bias is toward big companies over small ones. Big companies create constituencies and can afford lobbyists to make their case. Moreover, big business becomes a tempting vehicle for other policies like, say, providing health care. And why not: When government is scratching business’s back, why shouldn’t business return the favor?