Interesting.
Theodore Roosevelt has now thought out and matured his doctrine of Socialism. It is not the Marxian Socialism. . . Mr. Roosevelt achieves the redistribution of wealth in a simpler and easier way. He leaves the land, the mines, the factories, the railroads, the banks--all the instruments of production and exchange--in the hands of their individual owners, but of the profits of their operation he takes whatever share the people at any given time may choose to appropriate to the common use. The people are going to say, We care not who owns and milks the cow, so long as we get our fill of the milk and cream. Marx left Socialism in its infancy, a doctrine that stumbled and sprawled under the weight of its own inconsistencies. Mr. Roosevelt's doctrine is of no such complexity. It has all the simplicity of theft and much of its impudence --NYTimes editorial, 1913 quoted at PowerLine
Now we know the theoretical genesis of using public utilities as cash-cows for Government projects, such as the "We'll Run Digital Internet to South Noplace at Your Expense" tax--or the hidden taxes that utilities pass on for "Greenification" projects.
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3 comments:
Now TR is a socialist, according to some egghead?
Debatable.
When TR was president, big business labeled him as a socialist, but he ardently refuted these accusations and the principles of Marxism.
In reality, Roosevelt did not despise big business. He knew the trusts in the late 1800's had indirectly increased the standard of living for nearly every American.
He did, however, dislike the power of the trusts and the fact that the American public had little control of them.
Yet, at the same time, he feared giving too much power to labor. His Square Deal policies attempted to strike a balance between the two.
Agreed, it's debatable.
But the remarks were a NYTimes editorial. We can debate whether that's written by an 'egghead.'
A LOT of 'progressive' ideas were good ones. FDA, e.g. and FLSA.
The problems we have today is that 'progressivism' has now degenerated into 'governmentalism,'--the doctrine that more Gummint is good Gummint.
No surprise. Thermodynamics predicted the fall.
I'm talking about the author from Powerline who is making the assertion. Sorry, I should have clarified.
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