@Hypocrisy_Central There are all sorts of things that go into being a big financial success. Drive and initiative are part of that, and those you probably learn either from your parents if you are lucky in the birth lottery, or from the school of hard knocks if you pay attention in class. But being born into wealth makes it far easier. Being sent to the nation;s top fprivate schools and having a dad and granddad who went to an Ivy League school so you get in on family preference helps. Being born with an IQ of 170 is a great asset. It’s not something all 320 million Americans can manage to do. Most of it, in fact, is not even in their power to control. And what dowes an Ayn Rand Gospel of Greed society work like. How many people get to the top when 320 million all play king of the mountain and play it with the ruthlessness of a Rupert Murdoch? How many end up crushed? Is that the world we want? I don’t.
Our great grandfathers learned in the late 19th and early 20th century what unfettered laissez-faire capitalism produces. We lurched from one depression to another with the final one occcurring in 1929. The wealthy and well connected ran roughshod over people. THey built monopolies and manipulated markets and ran insider scams and self dealing to the point nobody could trust investing in anything.
Our grandfathers and fathers learned under FDR that a society that regulates business and keeps it playing clean, a society that takes care of its weakest while amply rewarding its best and brighest, works best for us all.
But sadly too many in this generation have forgotten all those lessons of history. We went back to Laissez-faire dogma under Reagan and got 2 savings and loan crises that required taxpayer bailouts. We got Michael Miliken and the Junk Bond scams. We got the corporate takeover rush, with LBOs being financed by looting pension funds, and the buyout artists hitting the golden parachute just before the debt service collapsed the corporation. Jobs flew off-shorre for the first time since the Great Depression.
Then we further gutted regulation under Bush Jr. and we got Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Adelphia and Arthur Andersen imploding. We got the mortgage scams and runaway real-estate bubble, with nearly $200 trillion in garbage derivative securities stacked atop it. And still, we have the Ayn Rand accolates who want yet another lesson in why Greed isn’t Good.
@CWOTUS Murdoch actually has had a great deal to do with putting the system he works in place. He is a big provider of funding of far-right think tanks and PR firms, and his media empire has let him preach the Gospel of Greed in subtly crafted terms that average working class dupes will swallow hook, line and sinker. Most of them never realize he is pushing them to have themselves financially raped and pillaged for the benefit of folks in his wealth bracket.