The coal mining industry, for one, was not exactly a stellar moment in the history of free enterprise– not unless you believe it to be morally and ethically responsible for a company to hire men at firesale wages then pay them in company script that was redeemable in company stores to buy food and other necessities at inflated prices. And here you tout how the worker’s salvation is through savings and investment! The impoverished worker and his family were lucky if he could save enough for his expected burial from a premature death of black lung disease. Savings and investment (I spit in the dirt as I say that). Greedy companies which continue to beggar people and exploit them shouldn’t yell “foul” or preach Laissez-Faire sermons when the government intervenes on the workers behalf; the government wouldn’t have involved itself if coporations did what was ethically responsible in the first place.

And while were at it. Ever wonder why it is so appealing for American companies to reolocate overseas? One very strong attraction is a “hands off” policy of the host country toward American companies, i.e., a regulatory free zone. So, a US company based in China, for example, operates virtually unhampered by health and safety regulations, let alone minimum wage laws. And yes, child labor is quite common in China. Why mercy, it’s plain serendepitous for the Company– a deja vu experience or throwback to the Progressive Era when fortunes were amassed over the backs of exploited workers, thousands of whom have suffered occupational related illnesses, injuries, and deaths.

Tell me, do you truly not see anything wrong with this? Or is it all about profits, savings and investments, and good old free enterprise.