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Originally Posted by Isablan Neva  The thing is, though, that government intervention in the free market is almost always exclusively at the behest of market titans with great wealth that they would rather increase and protect. Leaving wealth at the hands of a free market would expose them to the results of bad decisions/corruption/shit happening that everyone else has to deal with. We can't be having any of that. So, the market makers curry friends and make contributions in the right places to ensure that "regulations" and "rules" are to their benefit.
Just look at what is going on right now with the protections the SEC is offering to 19 "market makers" with friends in high places and half of our elected representatives owing them favors. | You're confusing "free market" with "government interference" and my point still stands.
Government should be restrained from this kind of interference in a free market. I don't think any free marketeer would disagree. And we wouldn't even HAVE much of this problem if we didn't gut the 14th amendment with decisions such as the Slaughterhouse cases, which replaced the free market of butchers in Louisiana with a state owned racket. This was the decision that sent the South on its way to legal sanction of Jim Crow *and* set in motion the process that affirm corporate personhood through *federal law* today. Slaughter-House Cases, 1873 Quote: |
Facts: A Louisiana law of 1869 created a state corporation for the slaughtering of livestock. The corporation was given exclusive power to slaughter livestock, and all other private slaughterhouses were required to close. Independent butchers could use the corporations facilities for a charge, but could not conduct independent operations.
| Well... that's not a free market, is it? *Individuals* were being forced *by government* to no longer practice their business. Corporate personhood debate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Quote: |
The notion of corporate personhood, then, has roots in the early history of the republic. Still, as the 19th century matured, manufacturing in the US, became more complex as the British Industrial Revolution generated new inventions and business processes which US industry copied. US industry was largely protected by tariffs from British and other foreign competition. The favored form for large businesses became the corporation because the corporation provided a mechanism to raise the large amounts of investment capital large business required especially for capital intensive yet risky projects such as railroads. And as these corporations came to dominate business life, they also began to dominate America's politicians, lawyers, courts and culture.
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Thomas Jefferson said, "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
| Jefferson wanted an amendment in the Constitution to restrain monopolies, but didn't get his way. We're supporting corporate monopolies with our laws, and have been in a big way since the Civil War.
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"To begin with," said the Cat, "a dog's not mad. You grant that?"
"I suppose so," said Alice.
"Well, then," the Cat went on, "you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad."
"I call it purring, not growling," said Alice.
"Call it what you like," said the Cat.
Last edited by Hypatia Callisto; 07-18-2008 at 10:50 PM.
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