All I know is Andrew Carnegie built a library in my small town in Wisconsin. Every Saturday when I was a kid I'd ride my bike 5 miles in and load the books up in the basket. More in the summer. In between swimming and canoeing.
It was real. It was a lifesaver. Opening worlds above and beyond.
Bring back the robber barons.
Because they knew what it was to create.
And they were generous with it.
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Robber barons also formed trusts, set artificial prices for their products and services, drove small-fry competition out of business (sometimes violently), violently attacked the formation of unions (back when they had legitimate gripes), and ran political machines to promote their hand-picked candidates and agendas.
Not really a great improvement over today, in my opinion...
But they created REAL wealth.
The unions are the robber barons today.
They create debt.
Are you not in favor of a free market system?
In a free market system, there must be an equality of opportunity. Whether it is a government or robber barons strangling competition and opportunity, the results (the creation of trusts and monopolies) are similar.
The inefficiencies of government do create a specific set of problems, but the choice ends being an academic decision between two different cruddy possibilities. Historically, government regulation and social programs create runaway debt and insolvency, demanding foreign capital (aid or free trade with a greater power), collapse, or forcible expansion. Private robber barons seem to create either expanded governmental powers (the progressive movement like Teddy Roosevelt) or political instability and revolution (such as in much of South America). Would you rather be drowned or hung?
I would certainly agree with your assessment of today's unions. But wishing for a return of older form of corruption and oppression is not much of an improvement.
BTW, I absolutely don't subscribe to Hegel's theory of history made up of binary opposition, but certain broad situations do result in a limited number of possibilities. That's why we study history. Sorry, I'm lecturing instead of clarifying.
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