Need help converting a friend

[mmink15]

My buddy says his main issue with Ron Paul is that he fears big business not being regulated.
How do I respond?

[MalcolmGandi]

He says "legalize competition"... I wonder if that means redefining corporate rights?

[MalcolmGandi]

As far as regulating business, there were private watchdog groups that were around long before the EPA and FDA.

[angrydragon]

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=39118


http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=42146

Biggest watchdogs of all are the people and the news.

[mmink15]

Thanks Angrydragon, that's just what I was looking for. I'm new and not good at navigating around the forum yet.

[Jason T]

My buddy says his main issue with Ron Paul is that he fears big business not being regulated.
How do I respond?

Ron Paul seeks to eliminate corporate welfare. The problem w/ big business is corruption more so than lack of regulation. W/o subsides, big businesses will lose part of their competitive advantage over small businesses.

W/o the IRS, the playing field will be even. IE My father owns a small body shop w/ 6 employees. The tax code makes it extremely hard for companies to file as a S-corp (exempt from corporate taxes.) So, even though he has only 6 employees, a higher % of his income goes towards taxes than Bill Gates. He has to maximum taxes on his personal income, and maximum taxes on his corporate income. Since he has only 6 employees, corporate tax is essentially his own income.

On the other hand, your Billionaires are rich enough to pay their accounts to find loopholes. When John Kerry was talking about raising taxes of the top 2% of the country I was laughing - rich people don't pay taxes. Rich people write off personal items as exempt business expenses, give themselves stock dividends instead of a paycheck so they pay capital gains tax instead of income tax, use the "charity-tax loophole" etc etc. Small business people can't pay to get away this crap so they're stuck paying.

It's so sad that things are so corrupt most people don't even know what a "free market" is. Corporatism is socialism in disguise, it is miles away from a free market.

As far as Sarbanes-Oxley goes, Ron Paul isn't against the thought of sound accounting. He's just against the requirements of the law (such as 404.) The law is friggin' BS and favors older established corporations over up-and-coming ones. SOX makes it harder and harder to go public, which eliminates competition. Under SOX, big corporations get bigger if anything.

Lastly, the last thing Ron Paul would want is a monopoly corporation. Monopolies eat up free markets, something that goes against everything Ron stands for.