“When the economy is understood in 21st-century terms, as an ecosystem, it becomes obvious that jobs don’t squirt out of business-people like jelly from doughnuts. Rather, jobs are the consequence of the feedback loop between customers and businesses. For this reason, it is middle-class consumers and the demand they create that are our true job creators, not rich business-people. Given this, it is counter-productive to build a tax system that asymmetrically benefits the people at the very top. We all are better off — business-people and consumers, rich and poor — if the burden of taxes is placed at the top and not the middle, enabling middle class citizens to consume, and starting the positive feedback loop of job creation again.”

— Rich Americans Aren’t the Real Job Creators (via azspot)

“The crony capitalism that we have allowed to infect the U.S. economic system shares weaknesses with communism. A tax system that amplifies compounding advantages for business-people and corporations the higher up the food chain they go and compounds disadvantages for people at the bottom is bad for business. It slows the rate at which ideas are generated and problems are solved. The healthiest ecosystem or economy is one with the most diverse, able competitors, not one overrun with one or two dominant species.”

Communism is state capitalism, in which all or most means of production are owned and controlled by “the state”, and few or no means of production are owned and controlled by individuals. (Progressive Living)

Crony capitalism is a term describing an economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials. It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, or other forms of dirigisme. (Wikipedia)

• See also:  Reaganomics, laissez-faire, trickle-down, and voodoo economics.