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Deadly By Design
How capitalism has killed millions of people
In a previous article I described some of the enormous benefits that open markets and capitalism can deliver to us all. Unfortunately, as markets and capital are governed by people, and as people are too often ignorant, stupid, and venal, we should not be overly surprised to discover that markets and capitalism can be subverted to deliver all manner of harms in order that a privileged few should benefit greatly.
As the USA is the OECD’s most persistently corrupt economy, we should not be surprised to find that the most blatant perversions of markets and capitalism can be traced back to that unhappy nation. In fact, we have an abundance of riches when it comes to picking which examples to use in order to show how markets and capitalism, when inadequately regulated by politicians who’ve been bought and paid for many times over, can lead to legalized death.
We shall content ourselves with three historical examples, starting with railroads.
Back in the days of “manifest destiny” the US government wanted the West made safe for white folk and one important element of the intentional genocide that made way for all those white settlers was the railway system.
Railways made it possible to deploy hundreds of troops and their supplies rapidly and at…
