wkmac
Well-Known Member
I believe gov't is guilty in many respects but I also believe gov't is only half the equation. Gov't has a partner in the invisible hand of the private sector world. No, not all of the private sector nor or all corporations are guilty at the same level just as not all so-called "rich" would be guilty at the same level either.
However to ignore "K Street" and the revolving door of gov't to corp. leaders and lobbyists with no expectation that these folks won't feather their own nests is just naive to say the least. Banking and Investment industry lobbying to effect legislative and policy outcomes while placing industry insiders as regulatory officials is not only regulatory capture at it's best but this is also how the risk of market actions are backloaded onto the tax paying public. If there is no risk, what is the preventer to any action including obviously immoral ones? Even worse, these same insiders stand there and tell the public horror stories (remember the secret meetings in Wasington and Congressional leaders coming out griped in utter fear and thus TARP) that if they fail to let Congress absorb these massive losses onto taxpayers, the entire structure would fail and all would be harmed. This was an utter lie from the get go. Yes, the too bigs would fail (hooray, let's throw a party) but it was never a situation of "all life would come to an end." It would only end for the leeches but a real freed market could open up for the rest of us. That was the use of fear to drive towards an outcome and it was an action of both certain corp. industry interests and gov't with it's embedded operatives.
Much can be read of this from both right and left perspectives but 2 that come to mind for starters are (from the right) W. Cleon Skousen's "The Naked Capitalists" and (from the left) Gabriel Kolko "The Triumph of Conservatism". These are seed planters and not all conclusive observations. Kolko's work exposes the early 20th century (first decade) Progressive movement for what it was and not what the word progressive is considered today. You'll also understand why Neo-liberalism isn't true liberalism to begin with and tends to always have a so-called conservative outcome when all is said and done. Skousens's work examines Carroll Quigley's massive "Tragedy and Hope" and the 20th century players into the cold war era.
Once you begin to understand these people aren't free market and never have been but only hide behind free market language to fool us, we can begin to understand that capitalism as we know it today is not small gov't but is in fact a proponent of big gov't outcomes. Modern capitalism is nothing more than a type of neo-feudalism or mercantilism dressed up in a different suit of clothes. The truth is we didn't win the American Revolution, we lost. It just took 200 years to fully become obvious and it's getting near the time to revisit and finish the job. I'm excited the weapon of choice and means is information, truth and the delivery vehicle is the internet and social networks.
IMO the early Tea Party and the early OWS movements begin to point fingers in the correct direction and now sadly more and more both have become hijacked by the very monsters they earlier may never have realized they were pointing at. Had they been allowed to go on, they would have opened up a can of worms some don't want opened and thus the so-called elite were left no choice but to hijack in order to protect the nest they have built for themselves.
What we really need to solve the ills that plague us are "Markets Not Capitalism!"
Big Business and the Rise of American Statism by Roy Chillds
