‘People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public or in some contrivance to raise prices" (Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776)
Yesterday, I had an interesting conversation on a Tea Party website about how the oligopoly in Wall Street has had a detrimental affect on our economy and that the government should be enforcing anti-trust laws to break up the choke hold this consortium has on our right to access free markets. Below was his response.
"no I figure there are more companies then Stanley Morgan and Bank America and Goldmant and Sachs There are drug companies , telephone Companies and Obama and Gores Companies listed on the board You have Commodities Gold silver pork bellies etc. you have the American Exchange and NYSM and you have the European Market and the Japanese Market. Then you have the bonds market City bonds state bonds and USA treasury Bonds.
Mc donalds are franchies so is Wendy , Burger king, subway, too Jays, cheese cake factory, sals etc. but there are chinese restaurant who are not , you have hair dressers who are francheised . You want to get rid of all the Franchises because they make money? Churches is a Muslim Franchiese.. No it's not going to happen,
I said very simple GOVERNMENT HAS TO STAY OUT OF WALL STREET AND LET COMPANIES FIGURE THEIR OWN WAY OUT."
He was so adamant about not having government interfere with free enterprise that he lost track of the fact that it is governments major function to protect us from tyranny, whether that tyranny comes from foreign soil or is domestic. Just like a mugger is a threat to your freedom and liberty; so is an oligopoly.
Unfortunately there is no test of common sense or intelligence required to vote in elections. Indeed the government is the citizen's only protection from overly aggressive capitalism. When big businesses get deregulated, profits increase for the rich and the rest suffer. Why is it so hard for the many to stand up to the few when it comes to implementing financial industry regulation? Our country has let the rich have undue power by the absence of campaign finance controls. Campaign finance reform is a necessity for a more fair and just government. McCain and Feingold had this idea long ago. We the people must not let the rich buy our government out from under us. Those in a position to do so must speak out clearly, loudly and often to prevent this miscarriage of justice.
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