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The Pendulum

It's a common scene these days. It's everywhere. I walk into a coffee shop, minding my own business, hoping to maybe get some work done. But then succumb to being ensconced in a adjacent conversation about socialism via eavesdropping. I like to hear what people have to say on the matter, since it was ramped up in recent years by the Bernie phenomenon. People get so passionate about it, and for good reason. Arguing the inherent merits of capitalism and against it. There are bunkers in this fight were people have come to fight and die. I'm interested because I personally find the dichotomy to be false.

Rockefeller's America, a time when regulation was arguably at an all time low, monopolization of the economy acted as an ipso facto government. Self-regulated by the 1%, who swung their weight around in the stock market to cause a panic, gobbled up the smaller banks, along with the rest of the competition and therefore the market share. The government had to step in, but when they did it was too late. If it hadn't had been for the war Americans would have continued to sink indefinitely.

During this time, children as young as five worked in dangerous construction sites, where work safety was nonexistent, and did so 7 days a week. The people at the top had so much pull politically that they all but ensured that things were so bad for the little guy that he'd be forced to put up with whatever he and his family had to to survive. If it weren't for market regulation, along with new opportunities afforded by The New Deal, Americans would have lived in virtual slavery to the banks indefinitely.

Across the world however another story was playing out in the gulags of the Soviet Union. Entire families were being gunned down thrown in piles and burned. Mass graves were the fate of those who dared to dissent their Communist authoritarians. People in these parts of the world lived in abject poverty and depression and arguably have never really recovered from the damage done the social fabric of their communities by socialism.

I suggest there is a balance. That capitalism, when absolute, is an ipso facto government. And at the same time, how governments when made absolute, act as ipso facto corporations. Both lead to tyranny when given absolute reign, as both have been tried and have demonstrated to do so historically. The genius of the American political system is that the founding fathers distrusted the very notion of the consolidation of too much power. That there is a pendulum between government and the free market; that both are necessary, and can be forces for good, but also can't be trusted.

The very real danger we are facing today has less to do with and idealogical battle, and far more to do with the threat that these two historically separate entities are now one and the same. The line has been blurred beyond distinction. If your curious how this newer dynamic could possibly play out, do yourself and your family and favor and research the term Fascism.

R_D_Russell 6 Apr 19
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I have considered the central bank to be partly the issue and the other issue is that politics became entangled with business. It is as you point out around Rockefeller, it was a rather dark time for freedom I would posit. I think the regulations were sort of a necessary evil but would have been less so if they also addressed the root cause that business was getting involved in politics and the central bank. We have continued that trend so much so that laws are not drafted by politicians but business lawyers. The game has not changed, just gotten more complicated; and to a point where we don't realize once again the control big business has over our lives.

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Fortunately, we now have a new tool at our disposal. The inter webs! Heaven help the scamming business dude or dudette who tries to use a business license as a license to steal. That can go viral in a heartbeat.

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