Trump may be no Objectivist but Binswanger misrepresents him

Reader comment on: A Weak Argument Against Trump
in response to reader comment: Trump and inherited wealth

Submitted by Mark Hunter (United States), Mar 9, 2016 20:16

Mr. Binswanger lists three avenues of ill-gotten wealth:

1. government loans
2. special privileges
3. eminent domain
4. etc.

Nix the third, eminent domain. Trump lost money *trying* to use eminent domain, twice: once in the U.S. and once in Scotland. He tried but he lost in court both times. Financially they were losses. (Of course he shouldn't have tried but that's not the issue here.)

Perhaps the second, special privileges, refers to (A) being allowed to bypass local regulations that shouldn't have been in force anyway, and (B) getting abatements of taxes that shouldn't have been in force anyway.

Trump donated to politicians to in effect bribe them so he could do what he would have been free to do in a future capitalist society. You could as well trash the fictional Taggart Transcontinental considering its fictional history.

As for the first avenue of ill-gotten wealth, government loans, can Mr. Binswanger provide us a reference? All I can find so far is Mainstream Media commentators *calling* tax breaks "loans."

Since "special privileges" is a catch-all, Mr. Binswanger's fourth avenue, "etc.," is just propaganda unless he can be explicit.

At this point we have zero out of four. Trump may be no Objectivist – hey, he's no Objectivist for sure – but he probably earned most – most as in almost all – of his weath.

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Other reader comments on this item

Title	By	Date
Trump and inherited wealth [76 words]	Harry Binswanger	Mar 1, 2016 14:07
↔ ⇒ Trump may be no Objectivist but Binswanger misrepresents him [222 words]	Mark Hunter	Mar 9, 2016 20:16
↔ Reply to Mark Hunter on Trump [15 words]	Harry Binswanger	Mar 21, 2016 10:01
Maybe...but not so fast [92 words]	Marc Segan	Feb 27, 2016 10:24
On the other hand... [31 words]	Samgr	Feb 27, 2016 05:22
Agreement, with a condition [134 words]	David Moran	Feb 26, 2016 21:26
Performance matters [w/response] [95 words]	Duane Hershberger	Feb 26, 2016 19:59
Inheritance [73 words]	James b	Feb 26, 2016 19:10
Going back a bit further: [45 words]	Lyle	Feb 26, 2016 18:32
Re. A weak Argument Against Mr. Trump [44 words]	Nadia Diab	Feb 26, 2016 17:50

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