[ExI] Economy: "The Big Takeover"

[PJ Manney]

On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 4:25 PM, Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:
> And yet the oligopolies are what many people both in the US and elsewhere think capitalism *is*, and it seems to be what ideologues tend to champion against horrid "socialist" alternatives (especially top down direction or supervision by elected deputies or their civil servant class operatives). But no, it's actually the travesty pilloried and reviled in the bible of honorable capitalism, ATLAS SHRUGGED: a cabal of facile unprincipled shits lacking in reason or self-knowledge, unwilling to contribute but eager to grab and retain what they can, seeing themselves as an aristocracy of entitlement. Maybe so, maybe so.
_______________

Oligarchy is oligarchy.  Doesn't matter what "ism" you stack in front
of it.  Somebody screws somebody else.

Coincidentally, my daughter is studying the American Revolution and
was watching the musical 1776 this afternoon.  Your post made me think
of the song that was censored from the movie version by Richard Nixon
himself (and only added back in recent years in the director's cut
DVD) -- "Cool, Cool, Considerate Men":

John Dickinson: … Mr. Hancock, why don't you join us in our minuet?...
Be careful, sir. History will brand him [John Adams] and his followers
as traitors!

John Hancock: Traitors to what, Mr. Dickinson — the British Crown, or
the British half-crown? Fortunately there are not enough men of
property in America to dictate policy.

Dickinson: Perhaps not, but don’t forget that most men with nothing
would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the
reality of being poor. And that is why they will follow us …

Chorus of Conservatives:
… to the right
ever to the right
Never to the left
Forever to the right...

Within 50 years, the balance of power shifted to Dickinson and his
ilk, as they do in any maturing society, for his reason above.  And
the dance continues.

PJ