The answer is disturbingly simple. Power and Greed. Only the Unions act as a foil - a defense - against a complete corporate takeover of our lives. To a certain extent, the battle against Corporate Communism American Style has been waged since the founding of this Country.
In the last 30 years or so - since Ronald Reagan put his dunce cap on in the Oval Office and picked up a phone - Unions have been in serious decline. Ronnie boy - Bonzo - the B-Grade movie actor and king of all that is unholy, the great de-regulator started this run away train by busting the Air Traffic Controller's Union. Who really needs air traffic controllers who are alert, and well fed anyway - right?
These Neo Cons and Reganites don't really have any new ideas. It's just the old ideas wrapped in new paper. Laizze Faire Capitalism - why don't we just call it what it is - Anarchy for Corporate CEO's, Robber Barons and Casino Owners. Who's kidding who here? Ronnie Boy was a shill for G.E. when his piss poor Hollywood career tanked. Now don't get me wrong, I wish I had Ron's career. Unlike him, I wouldn't sell my soul to get it. He may not have known he was selling his soul, poor devil - he was a little dense, but he was misguided enough, by his Bosses at General Electric "G.E." to you youngsters, and all the other Defense Contractors and Utility Companies, and he was, well, stupid enough, that he may have actually believed his bullshit. It's always a mistake to believe your own bullshit.
So just a little more on Anarchy and trust me, I'm not a fan. After Anarchy, the next worse thing is Corporate Dominance over the people. The next worse thing after that is Government. Like Thomas Jefferson - I prefer newspapers over all of the above. Trouble is - the newspapers are all dying and all the media outlets are owned by G.E. or worse, Rupert Murdoch.
I am not much of a fan of Milton Friedman because he was either naive or a liar, maybe both. The idea of freedom, freedom for individuals and markets are an ideal to strive for. But how to get there and stay there? That's the rub.
Milton Friedman wrote a lot - he once wrote this: " Political freedom means the absence of coercion of a man by his fellow men. The fundamental threat to freedom is power to coerce, be it in the hands of a monarch, a dictator, an oligarchy, or a momentary majority. The preservation of freedom requires the elimination of such concentration of power to the fullest possible extent and the dispersal and distribution of whatever power cannot be eliminated — a system of checks and balances.
Ch. 1 "The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom"
What that means to the Republi Cons is - If you write the checks - we'll make sure your account balances - see - checks and balances. In other words, they're on the take, they're dirty as three days of dishwater. They take bribes. They don't care about anything but money no matter what they say. Just look at that horrible Sara Palin person. (Where has she been the last few weeks anyway?) To be even keeled the Democrats are pretty bad too, but the Republi Cons are far worse, mostly because they oppose Unions and are so shameless in their perfidy and protection of the the Moneyed Class. It's hypocrisy for these con artist republican tea bag mo fo's to say they want liberty out one side of their mouths and side with the Moneyed Class against the Unions. Hey, either we are free to associate, assemble and bargain for contracts or we're not. What are these Tea Party lunatics thinking? Oh yeah, those checkbooks checking and balancing.
Money concentrated through deregulation and union busting is the same as any other kind of power concentration. The concentration of capital is worse. Greed is not good. Unions - what's left of them - are the last bastion of the people having power outside their rifles, pistols and shotguns. That is until the army turns on the Oligarchs and starts using the real stuff. Which, quite frankly is what history shows usually happens. J.P. Morgan, the man is dead. His money lives on. Even the Roman Empire's money lives on, look at that Church they call Catholic.
So how does busting Unions and allowing money to concentrate in just a few very very very rich people work to prevent Oligarchy and Despotism? It doesn't. It causes it. The end result is revolution, which is unpleasant, but, I know Thomas Jefferson would agree sometimes necessary. I never thought I'd live to see it. I'm not so sure anymore.
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