Not So Free

Michael Moore has a great article posted on AlterNet today. He writes about a topic that lefty political philosophers have known since day one.

I have a rule of thumb that's served me well my whole life: whenever corporate executives begin talking about how they support "free markets" and "competition," check to see if you still have your wallet.

That's because no one -- not Karl Marx, not Fidel Castro, not your niece who owns the only lemonade stand on the block -- hates competition more than corporations. The whole goal of a corporation is to crush all the competition. When corporate executives start pushing for "free market policies," what they mean is a government that lets them become a monopoly...

While these sentiments may shock Middle America, it's been this way from the very beginning. Under capitalism, the whole notion of being free of government regulation is so that the big players in each industry can be free to smash anyone who tries to get in their way. It's all about insuring that the playing field is anything but level.

And this is important to keep in mind if you think that casting a vote will make much of a difference.

In the days of yore, the Democratic Party sought to level the playing field -- not as much as many people like to think, but they at least saw the overall benefit in leveling the field somewhat. Far too many of today's Democrats aren't all that different from most Republicans; leveling the playing field isn't a major concern for them.

So, what do you think you will get when neither side is interested in leveling the field of play? A field that is more and more tilted to one specific side and we all know which side that is!