Spreading the wealth

[myrddyn]

Preface: I do not personally think that "spreading the wealth" the way that it is currently being slanted is the "best" policy in this country. A well-regulated free marked does encourage competition and generate a solid work-ethic and better-than-average products/services. At least that's my political stance

Comments

[not4profiteer]

Andrew Carnegie was also one of the forerunners of this thinking. He writes about it in Gospel of Wealth.

We also have to realize that these robber barons saw capitalism in a romanticized and idealistic way. Carnegie spoke of a great industrial machine where every man had a job and progress billowed like smoke ever higher and higher.

We also have to remember that there was the bad too. Though they spoke of progress and the rights of man, they also stepped on quite a few of them in that second third of their life. For them Philanthropy was a sort of mix of guilt and idealism.

[myrddyn]

Absolutely true.

I think that separating the ideal from the people in this case is appropriate for looking at its merits. Any system involving people is going to have a degree of corruption even when that's not the intent of the people involved. It's easy to look back and say "wouldn't it be great if...", but certainly a lot of unsavory actions led to this mindset.

In fact, it may have been Carnegie i was thinking of in the first place. This is why I'm not an historian.

[not4profiteer]

Neither am I. I just happen to know about Carnegie as I had to do a presentation on him last winter. :) But really the development of his philosophy is interesting. It really goes way back to his childhood. On the one hand his father and uncles (father's brothers) were very big on the equality of all thing; but on the other hand his mother was very big on personal comfort and striving to be rich. Couple that with his families sudden decline from middle class to abject poverty, and I think there was a inner need instilled in him to never want to go hungry again; and also maybe a feeling that one should never consider themselves financially safe. I think these things strove him to make his riches. But then the guilt of what his father would think ate at him.

[zenmasticate]

"Well regulated" and "free market" seem to be at odds.

[myrddyn]

I think that that depends on the interpretation of the terms. I don't consider "Well regulated" to mean controlled or manipulated. I think that regulation should be in place to monitor for unsavory acts as well as innocent mistakes. In that case, the market is free to operate in the way that it is often said that it should while still protecting consumers from corruption from the top and companies from themselves (in such cases as that is necessary).

[satyagraha101]

it sort of depends on what you mean by "free".

if it means "everyone can do whatever they want if they have the power to pull it off", then regulation is out.

if it means "everyone has an equal chance to do whatever they want, bounded by the needs of everyone else" then regulation is necessary.

[zenmasticate]

Hah. I was attempting to be factitious online. I think that free markets only stay free when there's someone there to make sure the rules are followed by all the teams out there. Cartels and monopolistic competition hurts those of us on the poorer end of things.