“On the contrary, when the central government takes control of some private authority—be it the Church, the steel industry, or whatever—it’s all about the government...”
This is about financiers and banks.
“Top Senate Democrat: bankers “own” the U.S. Congress
Sen. Dick Durbin, on a local Chicago radio station this week, blurted out an obvious truth about Congress that, despite being blindingly obvious, is rarely spoken: “And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.” The blunt acknowledgment that the same banks that caused the financial crisis “own” the U.S. Congress — according to one of that institution’s most powerful members — demonstrates just how extreme this institutional corruption is.”
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/30/ownership/
In any event..the issue bears more than passing semblance to those who will insist the War of Nawthern Aggression was merely about slavery.
“The blunt acknowledgment that the same banks that caused the financial crisis ‘own’ the U.S. Congress”
His admission is meaningless. Surely, bankers have lobbyists and Wall Street donations favor Democrats. but that’s not evidence that they “own” anything. It’s just that they happen to want what the Democrats want, that their interests match up.
I don’t think bankers are writing policy, or that their contributions are responsible for the Democrats being in power. What’s certian is that once you bring the state in to solve problems for you, it is no longer you that’s in charge. The state is. They’re the ones with the power, and their interests—which have little or nothing to do with short-term economic interests of the people who expect to benefit—will be the ones that prevail.
If I.G. Farben thought it was getting a deal when it got Hitler into office, it was sorely mistaken. Hitler had bigger plans.