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A term introduced by Peter Thiel:
“In debates and political conversations our temptation is always to straw-man the other side: to find the most ridiculous thing somebody says, to zero in on that, to exaggerate it even more, and to sort of use that to make the political opponent appear silly and ridiculous.
“And I sort of think we’d be often well-served to do the opposite of straw-maning. And a word one of my colleagues came up with is ‘steel-man.’ We should steel-man the people we disagree with. We should think about how we can make their arguments even better than they make them. Even if they’re expressing their arguments in a bad way, what are the real underlying issues that those arguments reflect? How can we address those real underlying issues?
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How Higher Costs Help the Biggest Companies - Peter G. Klein
Does any business like higher costs? Does any company like increased regulations, whether good or bad, which make it more difficult to operate? Does any company want a government that does this type of thing, and will support such a government?
Yes, in a competitive market, those types of difficulties benefit the biggest companies, who have the resources to do these things easily, and which will make business relatively harder for their smaller business competitors who might even go out of business. It’s in their interest to support governments who promise and execute these types of governmental actions, making it costlier to do business.
Economist Peter G. Klein, speaking at a recent Mises podium, gave some examples of this:
“Walmart can easily afford to design the parking lot in a certain way to make sure there are no steps as you enter the store. It’s easy for Walmart to do, and of course Walmart Corporation has hundreds, maybe thousands, of attorneys and compliance officers and all sorts of folks who specialize in understanding the regulations and making sure the firm is in compliance. Mom and Pop stores don’t have that. They can’t afford to build a ramp instead of stairs. They can’t afford to re-pave their parking lot. They don’t have a lawyer on retainer who can help them decipher the latest requirement of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“So large companies often lobby for more regulation, for stricter government requirements on disclosure and so forth, because they know they can afford it and their smaller, newer rivals cannot afford it.”
