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From: lkk@mit-eddie.UUCP (Larry Kolodney)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: more on oligopolies - another answer to Tim Sevener
Message-ID: <3346@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 19-Dec-84 20:16:51 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.3346
Posted: Wed Dec 19 20:16:51 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Dec-84 02:04:55 EST
References: <4344@cbscc.UUCP>
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 32

From Larry Cipriani:

"    When one realizes that Rockefeller was first, one realizes that it is just
plain stupid to ask how Rockefeller came to control the oil industry.  The real
question is: How did he RETAIN control?  The best book on how industrialists
USED THE GOVERNMENT to preserve their market shares is *The Triumph of
Conservatism : A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900-1916* by Gabriel
Kolko (Kolko is, incidently, a radical Leftist, not a Libertarian)."

The question is not "WHat method is used to wield power?" but
"Who wields power."


Whenever there is a lack of a strong govt. with strong popular control,
powerful third parties inevitably gain control of the govt.



It may be true that in a libertarian society Rockefeller couldn't have
done what he did.  But the point is that given Rockefeller, libertarian society
is not capable of surviving.  Power inevitably accumulates.  The only counter
force to strong third parties controlling your life is for a strong govt. to
do so, where at least you have SOME say in how it does so, and how it doesn't.


-- 
larry kolodney (The Devil's Advocate)

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