Posted on 12/03/2003 9:44:42 AM PST by freedom44
It might also be worth discussing whether the present National Greatness Republicans, because they trace back to Hamilton and the New York business crowd, aren't really more like prerevolutionary Americans who never really bought into the American Revolution and, behind Hamilton's "host within himself", began the Federalist movement to rein in American freedom and make the New World safe for "business as usual", only without the Crown.
The economic entities on which the GOP has always stood have always, always exhibited an appetite for taking advantage of people and for thrusting Hobson's choice on as many people as possible, in order to widen margins. They are no Jeffersonians, but dry-eyed exploiters. While one may make any sort of excuses one likes about this kind of behavior, the fact remains that it is antagonistic to freedom for anyone who isn't a wealthy principal, and it's the sort of behavior Adam Smith warned us about. Even Wm. F. Buckley, Jr., quoting someone else, warned us recently that "the problem with capitalism is capitalists; the problem with socialism is socialism." The first part of his statement applies.
Therefore, to make capitalism work, society can't let its exponents run wild, or else laissez faire becomes "laissez rob" in short order.
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