Remember the end of the 19th Century?

[Captain Absolut]

Well that's when all the monopolies were destroyed, like Standard Oil and Ma Bell. Anyway, do you see this happening soon with all these damned mergers going on?:grr:

[Emboldened Chimp]

1. Like it was yesterday...

:eyes:

[truthspeaker]

2. yeah, when capitalism was running so rampant communism seemed attractive?

People seem to think unfettered, total capitalism encourages free enterprise, equal opportunity, and upward mobility. We only got those things when the government stepped in to regulate.

Of course things won't work well if those regulations are burdensome or inefficient. But we need the regulation itself.

Some people don't know their own damn history.

[tom_paine]

6. Exactly. There's a good quote someone uses as a sig here at DU

(and this is definitel NOT the exact quote, only paraphrasing it)

It goes something like this:

"If we truly dislike Communism, why are we hell bent on restoring the system that gave it birth in the first place" (i.e. lassiez-faire capitalism)

So true, but very much in keeping withthe Cyclic Theory of Life

1) Ruthless lasseiz-faire capitalism abuses workers, physically attacks workers looking for better wages & conditions.

2) This leads to the rise of extremist philosophies from both Left and Right, Communism and Fascism, which are extreme responses to an extreme situation. Both exalt the worker, though Fascism's exaltations are even more pathetically lying and hollow than Communism.

3) Fascism and Communism are defeated by Liberal Democracy, who eliminate the system of lassiez-faire capitalism, gradually altering to the regulated, monopoly-discouraging Social Capitalism which avoids the embrace of extremist philosophies.

4) After Communism is defeated and Market Values are beginning to be embraced throughout the world, even in nations who still call themselves Communists, Liberal Democracy is assaulted from within (as the Roman Republic was) by Imperial lassiez-faire Capitalists who wish to dismantle the Social Capitalism that saved the nation from the extremist philsophies in the first place.

5) See Step #1.

[Llewlladdwr]

3. Actually, AT&T was broken up in 1984.

That was much closer to the end of the 20th Century. I'm pretty sure the telephone wasn't in really widespread use at the end of the 1800s.

[Captain Absolut]

5. Aye

You're right, I was thinking of something else I believe.

[leftofthedial]

4. all i remember is walking uphil both ways to school every day

damned whippersnappers!

Good point though, although today's mega-conglomerates are pan-industry. The 19th century monopolies were more narrowly focused.

The rise of corporatism is the bane of our world.

[cosmicdot]

7. "do you see this happening soon"

I sure hell hope so. Corporations and their good ol'boys are taking us down with their little proxy kingdoms, self-anointments, and their inability to walk and talk at the same time ...

are there any clues out there as to why our corporations are failing society and its workers and its quality and its customer service ... something is being ignored and our standards of living are plummeting, while others are immune because they have so much money ...

It's difficult enough knowing we had a beloved President in office when a lot of it took place ... and encouraged through e.g., the Telecommunication Act of 1996 ... gosh knows what's buried as riders and such in Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act Of 1996 (though few can afford COBRA and go without health insurance)

we pre-empted some of Newts Contract ... we became them, and now, they want us to believe that that is what we are ... something borrowed, something blue ...

We need a Workers' and Patients' Bill of Rights to put us above corporations and their abusive ways.

[m-jean03]

8. Or the beginning of the 20th --

For your pleasure, ladies and gentlemen: Miss Dawn of the Century, Angel of progress and technology, Guardian of the great hopes and dreams of mankind. Take off your hats, sons and daughters of the West and bow before her lovely face; see your many ambitions come to dazzling life in the land and the time where anything is possible.