Introducing Blog Contributor U.S. Bennett, MPA

by | Nov 17, 2015 | In The News

This month we are honored to introduce to you our special guest blogger, U.S. Bennett, MPA. He has written a four part series on crony capitalism and its impacts as a bipartisan issue.

U.S. Bennett is a current IT Professional working in Higher Education. He has a BA in Humanities from Northern Arizona University and Masters of Public Administration with an emphasis on Public Finance from the University of Arizona. It was during this time that he evolved his passion for behavioral economics and decision theory. In addition to being an accomplished writer in philosophy he has also written academic works on big-data and fictional short stories.  He lives in Tucson, Arizona with his wife of 10 years and their son. In his free time he enjoys reading, writing, playing music, building guitars, watching college basketball, and spending time with his family. 

Read Part 1 of his 4 part series here and make sure to check back next month for Part 2 and follow him on Twitter at @GekokujoRhythm

New Market Freedom Alliance chief aims to inform Arizonans on public policy

by | Nov 7, 2015 | In The News

October 7, 2015
Arizona Business Daily Reports

Market Freedom Alliance (MFA), a nonprofit Arizona advocacy organization, is ramping up its support and education efforts around informing the state’s citizens and small-business owners about the impact of public policy initiatives.

“The overview of what we are looking to achieve through Market Freedom Alliance is … to help educate the people of Arizona, both in the public and private sectors, on the different public policy initiatives that are happening across the state and how they are impacting them as individuals,” Jenna Bentley, the MFA’s new executive director, told Arizona Business Daily.

Bentley, who started her new position at the alliance on Oct. 1, most recently served as the Republican National Committee Southern Arizona director, where she focused on grassroots mobilization and voter contact, and created new engagement strategies that are now being used nationwide. Her background in politics also includes being a staffer in the Tucson office of U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ).

“There is sometimes this gap where people will hear or see things through third parties in the media or read a tagline that says this bill is good or bad, but they don’t truly understand how it is impacting them and how it is impacting small businesses,” Bentley said.

MFA is intensifying its advocacy around those “policies that are going to promote and foster small-business growth for Arizona,” Bentley said.

In fact, part of what’s holding back Arizona from reaching its economic-growth potential is outsourcing, Bentley said. Bentley graduated from the University of Arizona with a hybrid degree in politics, philosophy, economics and law.

“We are outsourcing a lot to China, and that is problematic,” Bentley said. “We are keeping away business that should be focused in Arizona and sending it not only to a country that is overseas, but one that has Communist ties.

“So refocusing business back to Arizona is something that I think is holding our state back right now, and this is something we need to focus on,” Bentley said.

Arizona citizens and businesses also “need to allow the free market to actually foster competition,” Bentley said.

“Whenever we as a state get too far involved in trying to regulate that and trying to shift growth into other areas, that is problematic as well,” Bentley said. Bentley also said that this is another area about which the MFA hopes to educate constituents and business owners.

In the upcoming months, Bentley said her goal is to establish a really solid statewide network for the Market Freedom Alliance.

Coming from Tucson, where she worked extensively in Congressional District 1 of the Republican Party, Bentley said she “saw throughout the course of elections what works in terms of grassroots aspects — what works and what doesn’t work for the people of Arizona.”

Now, she said, it’s important to have the alliance’s entire framework operable around the state.

“When I joined this project, I felt it was really important to ensure that we are not just talking to people in Phoenix,” Bentley said. “We are a group that has a presence throughout the entire state.”

For information on the Market Freedom Alliance, go to: https://marketfreedomalliance.comm.

The Dangers of Cronyism

by | Nov 1, 2015 | Resources

The United States economy suffers from corporatism and cronyism, which occurs when businesses collude with government to obtain special benefits. The Occupy Wall Street movement has decried this rampant cronyism, but what is the best solution? Professor Jason Brennan contends that while it may seem like the solution is to allow government more power to control and police the economy, this “solution” may actually be causing the problem.

He argues that giving government the power to control and regulate the economy benefits the rich and well connected for two reasons:

  1. The power to “regulate the economy” is really the same thing as the power to distribute favors. For example, many of the regulations we have today were influenced by and sometimes even partially written by one or more of the corporations.
  2. Regulations actually hurt small businesses more than big businesses. It costs a lot of time and money to comply with regulations, making it difficult for small businesses to enter heavily regulated markets.

According to Brennan, less government power means corporations have less power to compete for, fewer privileges to seek, fewer subsidies to enjoy, and no agencies to capture.

http://www.learnliberty.org/videos/how-cronyism-hurting-economy/