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In any society, there will eventually be a small group of people who become very wealthy / powerful for various reasons. If we want to have a democracy, that small group of wealthy/powerful must be prevented from becoming so wealthy that they can buy the government.
That actually happened here in the US in the late 19th century (the Gilded Age). It wasn't such a great time, unless you were a member of the small group of wealthy robber barons who owned the politicians. There were few regulations on businesses (which helped create a lot of jobs, but unfortunately those jobs required 12 hour workdays in brutal and dangerous conditions, and paid almost nothing). Labor markets were flooded with unskilled workers from Europe to keep wages down.
In the last 40 years, the US has made great strides in returning to the Gilded Age: the gap between the rich and poor has grown dramatically, labor unions have been decimated, the Big Business class has flooded the labor markets (via outsourcing and insourcing*).
My political ideology is all about slowing/reversing a return to the late 19th century Gilded Age. What can be done?
Bernie Sanders was the only one to actually address these issues, other than Trump's occaisional "tough talk" on immigration. Hillary Clinton was all platitudes "Stronger Together."
*aka allowing illegal immigration to undercut blue-collar wages, and using H-1B visas to undercut white-collar wages.
I think your goal of stopping the rich from buying politicians is good, but the issue I have is that politicians have ALWAYS been bought off throughout human history.
The laws that people want to pass are essentially written by the same people they are meant to punish. The politically connected like passing more laws because they hurt their competitors more than themselves. Like I said, the goal is good...but I don't believe you can get rid of the elites working with each other for their own benefit, and especially through government.
You won't like my solution, but I see it as a situation where there's a gun in the room, which only a small select group is allowed to use, and everyone wants the gun to be bigger and more powerful to use against the bad guys. The bad guys are part of that select group. The answer is to reduce the power of the gun...or if you're a crazy extremist like me, get rid of the gun completely.
I guess the answer lies in your prescription for fixing the problem.
You don't want big businesses to buy the government, income inequality, and harsh work environments. I would think at least 70% of the population wants that.
Is there a better way to do things? I'm not opposed to considering an alternative point of view.
people are going to get rich regardless of what economic system you choose. the most creative people are always going to find away around the problems.
politicians are always going to be bought off by the above rich people, remember that regardless of what economic system you choose, money drives politics.
the solution here is to find a system that lets as many people as possible get as wealthy as they can if they are willing to put forth the effort to do so. pure unregulated capitalism does that best, but is fraught is problems of all kinds. so then you regulate it as best you can, always balancing what is best for the environment, the people, and businesses. get the balance right, and you have an economy that can grow at a predictable rate over a long period of time. get the balance wrong though, and you have ups and downs in the economy that come somewhat unpredictably, unless you know what indicators to look for. and then you can make money when the economy goes up or down.
but all this takes work, and work is the last thing some people want to do. they just want the profits without the effort.
The lesson here is that most historians are hopelessly confused about the rise of capitalism in America. They usually fail to adequately appreciate the entrepreneurial genius of men like James J. Hill, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt, and more often than not they lump these men (and other market entrepreneurs) in with genuine "robber barons" or political entrepreneurs.
Most historians also uncritically repeat the claim that government subsidies were necessary to building America's transcontinental railroad industry, steamship industry, steel industry, and other industries. But while clinging to this "market failure" argument, they ignore (or at least are unaware of) the fact that market entrepreneurs performed quite well without government subsidies. They also ignore the fact that the subsidies themselves were a great source of inefficiency and business failure, even though they enriched the direct recipients of the subsidies and advanced the political careers of those who dished them out.
Political entrepreneurs and their governmental patrons are the real villains of American business history and should be portrayed as such. They are the real robber barons.
At the same time, the market entrepreneurs who practiced genuine capitalism, whose genius and energy fueled extraordinary economic achievement and also brought tremendous benefits to Americans, should be recognized for their achievements rather than demonized, as they so often are. Men like James J. Hill, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt were heroes who improved the lives of millions of consumers; employed thousands and enabled them to support their families and educate their children; created entire cities because of the success of their enterprises (for example, Scranton, Pennsylvania); pioneered efficient management techniques that are still employed today; and donated hundreds of millions of dollars to charities and nonprofit organizations of all kinds, from libraries to hospitals to symphonies, public parks, and zoos. It is absolutely perverse that historians usually look at these men as crooks or cheaters while praising and advocating "business/government partnerships," which can only lead to corruption and economic decline.
To this day, the sheer creativity of the late 19th century is striking. A quick trip to the grocery store testifies to the era’s ingenuity. Pillsbury flour products owe their existence to Charles Pillsbury, who revolutionized the milling process and opened vast new markets for the hard winter wheat of the Dakotas. Hershey chocolates came into existence because Milton Hershey discovered a way to mass-produce milk chocolate. Campbell’s soups are the result of the partnership between Joseph Campbell and John Dorrance, who slashed transportation costs by discovering a way to halve the amount of water in canned goods. Equally inventive were Gustavus Swift and the Armour brothers with meatpacking, Henry Heinz with pickling, and Adolphus Busch with brewing. The list goes on.
Less visible than the flood of new products were the efficiencies the era introduced. Consider John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company, often regarded as among the worst of the robber barons. For the first time in world history, inexpensive, reliable interior illumination became a reality, thanks to Standard Oil. “We are refining oil for the poor man,” John D. Rockefeller was fond of saying, “and he must have it good and cheap.” Standard Oil chemists found more than 300 uses for a barrel of oil. In 1896, when Standard Oil commanded nearly 90 percent of the global market, petroleum products reached their absolute lowest relative prices.
As American industry expanded and became more efficient, it provided a rapidly growing population with a steady stream of jobs. One study finds that real non-farm earnings rose more than 60 percent between 1870 and 1900. Another shows that wages grew, in real terms, from $1.00 daily in 1867 to $1.90 daily in 1893. But perhaps more striking evidence is found in the tens of millions of immigrants who swarmed to the United States in this period—sensing, as they did, that in America they could make more, live better, and rise faster than anywhere else on earth.
None of this is to say that businessmen in the Gilded Age were angels. They could be ruthless. They could be greedy. But they channeled their very real flaws into very productive channels, opening opportunity and creating real and lasting wealth. They did not simply inflict transaction costs. They were not robber barons.
I think your goal of stopping the rich from buying politicians is good, but the issue I have is that politicians have ALWAYS been bought off throughout human history.
The laws that people want to pass are essentially written by the same people they are meant to punish. The politically connected like passing more laws because they hurt their competitors more than themselves. Like I said, the goal is good...but I don't believe you can get rid of the elites working with each other for their own benefit, and especially through government.
You won't like my solution, but I see it as a situation where there's a gun in the room, which only a small select group is allowed to use, and everyone wants the gun to be bigger and more powerful to use against the bad guys. The bad guys are part of that select group. The answer is to reduce the power of the gun...or if you're a crazy extremist like me, get rid of the gun completely.
I think I understand your position.
My take: I don't know if it's possible to "get rid of the gun" since humans seem to be hard-wired to desire power and domination over others. Even if there were no government for a time, eventually someone would find a way to dominate and control by threat of harm, no?
Even if we reverted to tribal existence, there's still the problem of systematic psychological abuse by the tribal leader. I grew up in a far-right Christian sect so I know all about that. In cults, it's even worse.
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