Fighting the Last War

Generals are notorious for fighting the last war.  They go into battle assuming that they are pitted against an enemy just like the last one and therefore that they must employ the same weapons and tactics as before.  Only bitter experience forces them to alter their plans.

I am not talking about the war against ISIS or Radical Islam.  While we have been slow to adjust to their challenge, I am referring to a domestic problem.  The warriors looking backwards nowadays are the Liberal/Progressives.

Over a hundred years ago, the Progressives took aim at the abuses of laissez-faire capitalism.  With the acceleration of the Industrial Revolution, trusts were then growing at an alarming rate.  These precursors to the modern corporation had unexpectedly consolidated into monopolistic giants.

Thus, John D. Rockefeller towered over the oil industry.  For years, he had been forcing his smaller competitors out of business.  If this entailed underselling them or compelling railroads to charge them higher rates, he did what was necessary.  This included bribing politicians to protect his interests.

Yet Rockefeller was not a bad man.  He was a power hungry person who was determined to consolidate his success so that he would never have to re-experience the insecurities of his youth.  In fact, his quest for efficiency reduced the price Americans spent on kerosene.

Meanwhile J.P. Morgan towered over the finance industry.  Never as wealthy as Rockefeller, his preeminence as a banker bestowed enormous power.  Determined to rationalize commerce, he brought steel companies together under the aegis of U.S. Steel—and soon tried to do the same for railroads.

Morgan too was not a bad man.  It simply made no sense to him that railroads should waste money building parallel tracks.  If there was only one line, it could obviously charge less.  He also, virtually singlehandedly, prevented two financial panics—because this too was good for business.

The problem with the robber barons was not that they were thieves.  The problem was that they could have been had they been less scrupulous.  Their empires were so vast that no competitor could challenge them—no matter how vile their behavior.

As a result, the Progressives sought to use government as a counterweight.  Only it had the power to break up these monopolies.  When backed by the demands of an outraged public, it could reduce corruption and bring the tycoons to heal.

Today the problem is big government.  Over the last hundred years, its scope has so increased that its functionaries have their fingers in everyone’s business.  There is scarcely a corner of life that escapes its oversight and regulation.

Big government, however, is dominated, not by tycoons, but bureaucrats.  Not single individuals, but battalions of faceless officials, now exercise unrestrained power.  These too are not bad people, yet collectively they are as arrogant as any capitalist mogul.  They too have the power to ride roughshod over opposition.

This then is today’s battle.  While big business still needs to be regulated, so does big government.  Where once the muckrakers mobilized public opinion to reign in overzealous corporations, ordinary Americans must now be mobilized to demand that the federal government be curbed.

We do not have to rid ourselves of big government any more than we had to rid ourselves of big business.  The issue is control, not elimination.  We must thus reduce its excesses, rather than agitate for chaos.  We still, for instance, need a government-sponsored safety net.

But we do not need an iron cage built by the government any more than we needed one built by Rockefeller or Morgan.  An unfettered marketplace provided an invitation for abuse.  So does an unfettered government.

The current political wars should therefore not be between Progressives and Nineteenth century conservatives.  It should be between ordinary Americans who hope to retain control over their lives and Bureaucrats who are as overbearing as any tin pot dictator.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University