Anyone want to argue that this isn’t what is happening?
intercst
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Sure. I think she describes the shift in economic policy well, including the flawed reasoning behind Trickle Down Screwynomics. However, I don’t think the two economic ideologies are dividing the US. Workers who support someone clearly working against their best interests aren’t prioritizing economics. They’ve been duped to prioritze cultural issues that have very little impact on their lives.
It’s wishful thinking to suggest TFG supporters will switch sides once they feel the economic pain of his policies.
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Alpha Capital vs. Pocket Money
It’s the old divide between capital and labour. The only thing I’m going to add (not to upset the censors) is that the introduction of the Joint Stock Laws over four centuries ago propelled the world economy to new heights while it also gave the East India Companies excessive power to the point they had their own private armies.
The adoption of these laws proves the power of capital to propel the economy. The unseen side is the shift of power from governments to corporate boards. Too much of a good thing can be bad.
A bit of history:
Note: Thank you Google
Note 2: I didn’t read the whole thing
For the Benefit of Shareholders: Traditionally, directors of corporations, governed by American law, must manage corporations primarily for the benefit of shareholders.[36] The effect of this principle is made clear in a famous case, Dodge v. Ford Motor, wherein Henry Ford decided to stop paying dividends “to employ still more men, to spread the benefits of this industrial system to the greatest possible number, [and]to help them build up their lives and their homes.”[37] The court held that the profits of a corporation cannot be withheld from stockholders for the benefit of the general public and that a dividend must be reinstated.[38]
What Heather Cox Richardson omits is the other power grab, the one by the government bureaucracy.
The Captain
Too much of a good thing…
Bring back the Trust Busters
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If the only organized counterbalance to corporate boards is the government, but the government is bad, therefore must be destroyed, then everything is in the hands of the corporate boards.
Steve
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Capitalism can be abused
Government can be abused
Labor unions can be abused
A sick government is a bad government but it can be cured.
The Captain
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It is happening, but there are a lot of other things happening as well. For example, the move of US manufacturing to other countries with cheaper labor has been a major economic theme for decades now. It has become an impetus for the current wave of populism.
DB2
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I heard a major US Senator on the radio this morning railing against Corporate Capture of the Govt and how we must root it out.
I had to look at the display twice as I could not believe it was coming from the Senior Senator of Wisconsin.
For better or worse, Gordon Gekko is dead.
Hawkwin
Who thinks we might be witnessing in real time a massive realignment of the parties where both major parties are on some level hostile to corporations.
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Captain excellent summation.
Hawkwin,
Yes a realignment but will the party coming to power reach enough to make it work? The outgoing party was not promoting its success.
TFG probably is at the zenith of his power now before taking office. He is at risk of making such damaging mistakes he sinks his own ship. He will sink China fast but the factory buildout in the US would have done that peaceably anyway over time.
Think no further than J.D. Vance.
DB2
2 Likes
Thanks for the link to HCR’s explainer. I took a class in American political philosophy back in the early 1970s. At that time the debate was framed between property rights and human rights. It was the same game with different players. Or maybe it was a different game with the same teams.
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