Carden goes on to illustrate the difference between the two notions:
"A private company wants a patch of ground on which to build a hotel, a grocery store, a shopping center, or an office building. The “pro-business” solution is to seize the land via eminent domain and claim that the increased tax revenue is a public benefit (if increased tax revenue is going to be our standard, why don’t we compel labor force participation and make everyone sell their property to special interests?). The free market solution says “if the owner will sell to you, it’s yours, but don’t expect to be able to get government officials with guns to go get it for you.”Pro-business essentially means making laws or implementing regulations that will benefit one business or industry at the expense of another. This is also known as picking winners and losers in the marketplace. Rather than not providing any government favors or assistance whatsoever and letting the market i.e. consumers, decide which products and services are worthwhile, governments instead substitute their judgement for the judgement of the consumers.
Businesses themselves often try and work counter to the free market by lobbying the government to write laws or regulations that will benefit them at the expense of some of their competitors. If one wonders how we get money out of politics, one must look to the source of why there is money in politics in the first place. In his succinctly classic book, The Law, French philosopher Frederic Bastiat put his thumb on the problem two and a half centuries ago.
"Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Thus the beneficiaries are spared the shame and danger that their acts would otherwise involve… But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them and gives it to the other persons to whom it doesn’t belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish that law without delay - No legal plunder; this is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony and logic.”When we turn the law from an instrument of merely protecting property into an instrument of plunder, "...then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder.”
We see this today in modern examples. I've mentioned before the plight of new ride sharing apps like Uber and Lyft who are being prohibited from operating in certain states and jurisdictions. In many cases this is due to the taxi cab industry lobbying the government to erect laws preventing any competition from entering into the market. This benefits the taxi cabs at the expense of these new start-ups and at the expense of the consumers yet nonetheless it could still be construed as a "pro-business" maneuver by legislators.
Similarly, the popular accommodations provider, Airbnb, has come under fire in many large cities. There are certainly some legal fig leaves that give complaints about such businesses an air of credibility, but at the heart of it you can be sure to find the powerful hotel lobby amongst many others behind the scenes creating a stink trying to get legislators to "do something" about this pesky new business model that is causing them to lose business.
One will often hear liberals and progressives cry for tougher regulations on corporations and industries that have come under fire for one reason or another. They often call for these regulations in a misguided attempt to try and diminish the power of these corporations (who run our lives, dontchyaknow?) without realizing that many regulations actually benefit the largest corporations at the expense of smaller businesses.
Think about it, if you're Walmart or Amazon, industry giants, and the government slaps another regulation on that industry, closing a tax loophole, for instance, which will increase the cost of compliance and cause a monumental increase in paperwork to be filed for the regulatory agencies, who do you think is going to feel the brunt of this regulation the most? Will it be Walmart with billions of dollars in sales or will it be a smaller competitor, perhaps a local chain trying to go national that is still operating under thin margins while trying to gain a foothold in the industry? In the end, sure Walmart might have to pay extra to file their paperwork but it will hardly be a dent in their bottom line whereas the same regulation might be acutely felt and even completely stifle any growth of a potential competitor. In trying to diminish the power of a corporate giant, some of these regulations have the complete opposite effect which is to make competition imminently more expensive and cost prohibitive for smaller businesses thereby stifling competition.
Industry giants are very aware of this regulatory phenomenon and, believe it or not, are actually often the source of government lobbying for increased regulations. A very clever way of increasing market share while giving the appearance of trying to be responsible corporate entities.
It is important we remember these differences and allow the free market to let new businesses freely enter and exit the business arena. We all benefit from this by increased consumer choice, more job/income opportunities, a better allocation of tax dollars, and better uses of resources. Who's afraid of a little competition? It turns out, quite a lot of people. Competition is cutthroat, as anyone who pays attention to sports knows, but it is also the vehicle through which improvements, innovations, and advancements are made. Rather than fear it and try and regulate and legislate competition out of existence, we should embrace it and welcome the advancements that emerge when businesses are forced to legitimately compete in the marketplace of ideas.
