67 Comments
User's avatar
тна Return to thread
michaelflutist's avatar

Do you mean Millbank does? If you mean Bezos, he is an oligarch.

Expand full comment
Paleo's avatar

Yes and yes.

Expand full comment
michaelflutist's avatar

Ok, I'm not going to easily read the entirety of a presumably paywalled essay.

Expand full comment
ArcticStones's avatar

Michael, this is why I posted a gift link. The article is not paywalled. I guarantee that itтАЩs worth your time. If not, I owe you a pint if youтАЩre ever in my neck of the woods тАУ heck, IтАЩll buy you a pint regardless.

Expand full comment
michaelflutist's avatar

I didn't realize. I'll read it.

Expand full comment
michaelflutist's avatar

I agree that it's an excellent essay. Of course, Paleo is right that it takes as its premise that free markets should be taken for granted as a pillar of American society. But it's unfortunately too much to expect corporate media in the U.S. to give a platform to socialists who truly advocate socialism. And nowadays, even not kowtowing to a wannabe dictator in advance of the election was too much to expect. I have to wonder if Bezos would even allow this kind of op-ed to be printed next year.

Expand full comment
ArcticStones's avatar

The monopolistic capitalism we increasingly have today is anathema to the free market. Only well-regulated capitalism (├а la Elizabeth Warren) can yield a free market тАУ that is my argument as a Scandinavian and a social democrat (a term that is strangely out of fashion on this side of the Atlantic).

Expand full comment
michaelflutist's avatar

I love Warren. But I can foresee a time when ownership of the means of production to a large extent needs to be controlled democratically, not in private hands, and that's when almost everything is computerized and robotized.

Expand full comment
ErrorError