It seems the relevant luminaries have now returned from their study tour of North Korea to parade a glossy new ‘jobs machine’ to be presided over by none other than Industries Commissar Jim Neanderton. Reflects former Libertarianz leader Lindsay Perigo:

“We are clearly on the verge of another orgy of pork-barrelling, palm-greasing, "winner"-picking, cronyism and corporate welfarism.

Not what-you-know but whom-you-know in or from Wellington will determine your success. The sickening thing is that there'll be no shortage of candidates lining up for the confiscated, forcibly redirected money that Comrade Neanderton's new politburo will be doling out to his new ‘partners’.”

“In this regard, says Perigo helpfully, “I can't do better than direct you to a speech by T. J. Rodgers entitled ‘Why Silicon Valley should not normalise relations with Washington DC.’

“It has just been posted on the web site of the Cato Institute: www.cato.org, and it applies as much to the businessmen of Silicon Valley as it does to those here in New Zealand”.

T. J. Rodgers is president and Chief Executive Officer of Cypress Semiconductor, one of the wondrously successful corporates based in Silicon Valley at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay area.

It started as six founders with a fifteen-page business plan which they sold to a consortium for $3.5 million . it is now worth $1 billion. Silicon Valley itself, says Rodgers, "is a successful and dynamic example of basic American values at work: private property, intellectual property ownership, free trade and free markets. Just as Americans are more prosperous than people in other countries because our economy is freer, the people of Silicon Valley are better off than the average American because Silicon Valley economy is even freer from and less dependent on government."

But the siren seductress of subsidisation and protection is rearing her head. CEOs "are constantly told to stop sitting on the political sidelines, recognise the value of 'industry-government partnerships' and become donors, lobbyists and recipients of subsidies." "Statist" CEOs - i.e. businessmen more skilled at licking politicians' bottoms than at business - are lining their businesses up for Other People's Money. Morally and economically, says Rodgers, this is the kiss of death. "The political scene in Washington is antithetical to the core values that drive our success in the international marketplace. The collectivist notion that drives policymaking in Washington is the irrevocable enemy of high-technology capitalism and the wealth creation process. Silicon Valley is an island of capitalism and freedom admired around the world. We must remember that free minds and free markets are the moral foundation that has made our success possible. We must never allow these freedoms to be diminished for any reason."

“Comrade Neanderton could save himself and the rest of us a heap of trouble by forgetting about this new politburo and reducing taxes and regulations instead. Make it possible for new T. J. Rodgers to breathe and bloom. Who knows,” wonders Perigo, “if we freed things up sufficiently, we might lure the original down here!”

ENDS

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