[Skybird]

Difficult to judge that book and author by that article alone. I do not know man and book.

As I see it, yes, there are oligarchies of almost feudla nature forming up again, maybe they never really have been gone. On the other hand, our societies almost force everybody to live with his hands in other people's pockets, if you think of it long enough you see that it is very hard in ordinary life to avoid it even if you want to. But most want not anyway. The era since Roosevelt's New Deal maybe is best described as the era of redistribution, which really started rolling after WWII, all get robbed, and all take benefits in return, but it would be naive to seriously argue that those who act clever (meaning immoral here) do not become more successful in taking more than they give, than others. There is no honour amongst thieves, no matter what political parties try to tell you.

The paper money system and fractional reserve system feature inherent dynamics that further guarantee - unavoidably - that more wealth get shifted from the bottom and middle, to the top.

The left claims all this to be arguments against capitalism. That is a fallacy. What I summarised above, all is the distortion of a capitalistic system, made possible by blossoming monopolism. Criticism of monopolism I will always join. Monopolism is in politics and economics what blood and bone cancer is in medicine. You either kill it, or it kills you.

BTW, is there a word "monopolism", or is it always "monopoly"?

Another unsolved implicit problem is the accumulation of wealth by heredity (correct word?). While I oppose inheritance taxes, I do not claim to know a final solution to it. Maybe a culture that succeeds in anchoring certain ethical values in people, thus educating them to act morally, is an answer, but such policies has again risks in itself, as we can see in today's political correctness ideology and thjis unbearable attitude of the "Gutmenschen" that show tremendous signs of totalitarianism and fascism when wanting to impose their "wellmeaningness" on society and every individual.

But somehwere wise men like Ralph Waldo Emerson - just the first name on my mind in this moment - must have come form. Culture around can help or hinder to set ablaze a small spark in the soul - or kill it down, so that darkness falls. Education means more than just the transmission of facts and knowledge.