Greed and power

The reason we are continually advised to remember history is not because “history repeats itself,” but because historic events are controlled by human emotions that have not changed since the time of creation.

The particular emotions I am reminded about these days are greed and lust for power. These powerful attributes guide certain people to create something for themselves that is often harmful to others, particularly those people who are less powerful than they are. 

The past is full of stories of people of greed and power controlling the lives of regular people. People who are merely trying to get by and maybe even trying to get ahead a little. You know, the American Dream.

Now, that dream is threatened and not for the first time in our history. In the 1880s and early 1900s a few men controlled the finances and politics of America, and it took a few determined people like Teddy Roosevelt to bring them to heel. Roosevelt and his allies began the process of dismantling the mega corporations of the day. Monopolies were seen, correctly, to have been able to manipulate prices that enriched the corporations and increased expenses to customers. 

In 1911, there were 11 meat packing companies in America, a group so powerful that President William Howard Taft thought the industry should be nationalized. Today, there are four such companies.

Railroads were under strict regulation for years to help ensure fairness to farmers and other shippers. Today, there are four major railroad companies in America, making a joke of competitive pricing. 

The list goes on. The wizards of Artificial Intelligence give flattery and money to politicians to further their own interests. Where does the working person get to have a meaningful say?

Bringing the wealthy and powerful to heel needs to be done again. In America I believe it should be the individual American that matters in our decision-making process, not the most powerful or the most wealthy.

Today, we have people whose wealth is magnitudes greater than those robber barons of the 1890s and their power is even greater than their wealth because of the influence their money has in our political landscape.

Today we have wealthy individuals and corporations using their wealth to promote laws and privileges that largely benefit themselves and their beliefs. To many Americans, this is an immoral use of money and privilege to manipulate the system. 

To many of those with great wealth it is something that they feel they have earned the right to do. The Koch brothers are people who believe in being able to keep whatever money they have earned for their own uses rather than be compelled to pay taxes on their profits. The argument that they should pay taxes is that the American institutions of education, laws, courts and regulation against fraud in part enabled them to become successful, that these institutions cost money to maintain and taxes are the way that we fund these institutions. As Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.”

The very wealthy have certainly earned their wealth, but does that entitle them to use their money and the influence it brings to encourage government policies that brings them even more wealth and power? Perhaps it would be justified if it lifted all Americans up a step, but it doesn’t. 

When great wealth is used simply to create more personal wealth, it leaves hard working Americans watching from the sidelines, there to fend for themselves.

Jim Elliott served 16 years in the Montana Legislature as a state representative and state senator. He lives on his ranch in Trout Creek.