Raise the Hammer

Seancb, where did you get the idea that the free market outlaws failure? If a company can't produce value from its inputs, then it shouldn't be in business. All the free market does is shift resources to those who create value, from those who do not.

The alternative is to let politicians control investment decisions, whereby output is based not on end consumer demand, but on the lofty goals of a few well placed bureaucrats.

Compare the centrally planned economies of North Korea, the former USSR and seventies China to western economies and the difference is telling. By allowing individual consumers to dictate where capital flows, society ends up producing what consumers really want and not what politicians think should be produced.

Just as it would be stupid for you to allow me to spend your income on what I think you need, it's equally as stupid to allow politicians to spend taxpayers money on what they think we need.

As to your point about my arguments being mind numbing, that is only because you are trapped in left wing dogma that equates intentions with results. Since you begin with the premise that businesses are greedy, and citizens are good, anything that appears to help businesses must obviously come at the expense of the "people". The world is a zero sum game in your mind, where all the rules must tilt towards the people and businesses must be treated with suspicion and fear.

The truth however, is quite different from your view of the world. The truth is, that by helping others, you end up helping yourself even more. Therefore, if Hamilton wants to help itself, it needs to help others first. By dropping commercial tax rates to 1%, the city would give businesses a strong reason to set up shop in this community. Yes, the reason would be purely based on self interest and greed, but who cares? In life you have to give something up before you can get something back.

Up to this point, it doesn't seem that Hamilton is willing to give businesses anything, but is stuck in the selfish "labour first" attitude that drove all the industry away in the first place. But don't take my word for it, the results of business hating Hamilton speak for themselves. A rotting, sad little community of government loving, wealth hating, envious little souls who would rather be equally poor, than individually great.