Hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry, during an interview with Bloomberg, called out George Soros for being a socialist.
“The richest people on the planet become socialists,” Hendry explained. “Socialism is when you build a moat around the castle.”
This is a very astute observation that also fits nicely into explaining a lot of the activities of Warren Buffett of late.
I agree with Hendry but I'll take it to it's next logical step: large corporations are socialist organizations. They eventually get a taste for regulation (as a means of keeping new innovators out of the marketplace). The bulk of the employees are asked to sacrifice for the good of the corporation while a few at the top enjoy inordinately large rewards relative to the risks they take or the amount of skin they have in the game. When one dares to break the mold, competitors watch with glee as it suffers their consequences (Bear Stearns comes to mind).
ReplyDeleteSocialism, like feudalism before it, is an intellectual theory built upon the premise that the natural, constant change of social life and the free market order are social evils that must be quashed at all expense. Therefore, it has led to the practical result of stultifying all change, evolution and progress in every society it has touched, leading one to wonder if it was ironic misfortune or purposeful propaganda that got socialism labeled as a "radical" social agenda, when really it has been feudalists and socialists who have, throughout time, been most concerned with conserving the status quo.
ReplyDeleteThat is to say, in practice, socialists are the epitome of conservative thought and action.
Here is the interview. He calls Germany and France the "axis of financial evil"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8snTSBLOX4
You should get him to write for EPJ
It is probably worse when rich people become environmentalists. The green movement became the great life boat for communists and socialists after the Soviet Union sank. Unfortunately the new ship may ultimately be more of a threat. Communism merely presented, and was driven by, at least at it's idealistic grass roots, the false hope of economic equality. Environmentalism offers an (equally false) hope of escape from the end of the world. This provides a more direct rationale for beating up the non-believers.
ReplyDelete