In Goliath you showed how the battle for anti monopoly was primarily informed by a conviction that democracy could only exist if citizens had real agency over economic production. The men who fought against concentration of power, and therefore wealth, knew it wasn’t enough to just “prevent” bigness, you had to promote smallness. Leopold Kohr and Schumacher underpinned this worldview a couple of decades later, but “get big, or get out” eventually won the day. But was it always true you can’t have democracy without smaller unit producers? In the worldview of men you discuss in Goliath making the world safe for democracy required making the world safe for small business. While our economy might be typified today by tech and Wall St and modern logistics, the “real” economy is still along Main St and down the back roads and alleys.
The hollowing out of producers and the suzereignty of the A&P crowd paved the way for the over-financialization of our economy resulting in CVS buying Aetna and paying the Aetna CEO half a billion! I know, I was there. Guys sitting in front of screens thinking they were looking at the real economy not knowing they were killing the real people.
You are absolutely right we are dead in the water politically. It is now a massive chicken and egg problem. Without reform of economic life, it will be hard to reassert political balance and reasonable power.
I love your insight into my generation and the “cynicism of the counterculture”. Have you read Fred Turner? He’s a prof at Stanford and author of The Democratic Surround and From Counterculture to Cyberculture. Good stuff. He has a number of articles in various places. Boomers don’t want to hear it, but we abandoned real politics and turned inward for self-actualization. It was fun, but devastating. Where are we now?
Last night we had 2,000 demonstrators here in Portland (pop 66,000). Vast majority young people.
Also, our Governor, Janet T Mills, said this to Trump yesterday, after he dropped by in Air Force One and Marine One to create some havoc.
“I have spent the better part of my career listening to loud men talk tough to disguise their weakness. That’s what I heard today.”
Keynes was cool. A UBI would be great for capitalism. You're right, we need to end the drug war, and let people buy their own homes with a UBI. A capitalist democracy with a good social safety net is not a socialist democracy, and it's not communism. When those fed-up with capitalism and lured in by marxist critical theory remember how cool Keynes was, then we can return to civil political discourse to achieve that new social contract. What is it based in again? Oh yeah, ending the drug war and establishing a UBI. Great article.
Thank you so much for helping me to understand what is happening to me in our society today. So much of your article represents things I felt but couldn't really put into words. You could do so much good for our country if more people read this article. I feel like many of the protestors are probably like me and don't really understand how they have been systematically marginalized by wealthy corporations. They feel the frustration but don't really know how to fight back. We are plagued by misinformation. My brother who had his pension cut in half by his large non-profit hospital that he worked for, also idolizes Jeff Bezos as a genius. I keep trying to explain rather ineffectively that I view Jeff Bezos more as a cruel overlord than a kind hearted genius. But Amazon has waged a successful war of misinformation, as they have killed one small family business after another.
Just driving around Washington D.C. beltway recently, you have to ask yourself why are there so many corporations building large office buildings here? They are moving there to influence lawmakers and protect their political interests. It is so obvious, looking at the names on those buildings, Amazon and Juul (Phillip Morris) being some that jump out.
Our Government doesn't really represent the people, so much as they represent the corporations that give them political contributions. As evidenced by the actions of the Federal Reserve over the last 20 years.
I wish this article could get published in a mainstream newspaper to help more people like me.
Matt,
Great article on corporate power!
A couple of reflections…
In Goliath you showed how the battle for anti monopoly was primarily informed by a conviction that democracy could only exist if citizens had real agency over economic production. The men who fought against concentration of power, and therefore wealth, knew it wasn’t enough to just “prevent” bigness, you had to promote smallness. Leopold Kohr and Schumacher underpinned this worldview a couple of decades later, but “get big, or get out” eventually won the day. But was it always true you can’t have democracy without smaller unit producers? In the worldview of men you discuss in Goliath making the world safe for democracy required making the world safe for small business. While our economy might be typified today by tech and Wall St and modern logistics, the “real” economy is still along Main St and down the back roads and alleys.
The hollowing out of producers and the suzereignty of the A&P crowd paved the way for the over-financialization of our economy resulting in CVS buying Aetna and paying the Aetna CEO half a billion! I know, I was there. Guys sitting in front of screens thinking they were looking at the real economy not knowing they were killing the real people.
You are absolutely right we are dead in the water politically. It is now a massive chicken and egg problem. Without reform of economic life, it will be hard to reassert political balance and reasonable power.
I love your insight into my generation and the “cynicism of the counterculture”. Have you read Fred Turner? He’s a prof at Stanford and author of The Democratic Surround and From Counterculture to Cyberculture. Good stuff. He has a number of articles in various places. Boomers don’t want to hear it, but we abandoned real politics and turned inward for self-actualization. It was fun, but devastating. Where are we now?
Last night we had 2,000 demonstrators here in Portland (pop 66,000). Vast majority young people.
Also, our Governor, Janet T Mills, said this to Trump yesterday, after he dropped by in Air Force One and Marine One to create some havoc.
“I have spent the better part of my career listening to loud men talk tough to disguise their weakness. That’s what I heard today.”
Keynes was cool. A UBI would be great for capitalism. You're right, we need to end the drug war, and let people buy their own homes with a UBI. A capitalist democracy with a good social safety net is not a socialist democracy, and it's not communism. When those fed-up with capitalism and lured in by marxist critical theory remember how cool Keynes was, then we can return to civil political discourse to achieve that new social contract. What is it based in again? Oh yeah, ending the drug war and establishing a UBI. Great article.
Thank you so much for helping me to understand what is happening to me in our society today. So much of your article represents things I felt but couldn't really put into words. You could do so much good for our country if more people read this article. I feel like many of the protestors are probably like me and don't really understand how they have been systematically marginalized by wealthy corporations. They feel the frustration but don't really know how to fight back. We are plagued by misinformation. My brother who had his pension cut in half by his large non-profit hospital that he worked for, also idolizes Jeff Bezos as a genius. I keep trying to explain rather ineffectively that I view Jeff Bezos more as a cruel overlord than a kind hearted genius. But Amazon has waged a successful war of misinformation, as they have killed one small family business after another.
Just driving around Washington D.C. beltway recently, you have to ask yourself why are there so many corporations building large office buildings here? They are moving there to influence lawmakers and protect their political interests. It is so obvious, looking at the names on those buildings, Amazon and Juul (Phillip Morris) being some that jump out.
Our Government doesn't really represent the people, so much as they represent the corporations that give them political contributions. As evidenced by the actions of the Federal Reserve over the last 20 years.
I wish this article could get published in a mainstream newspaper to help more people like me.