What very few understand is that capitalism is a force for revolution and instability-precisely the opposite of what unknowing "conservatives" have been led to believe. Capitalist speculators make money by churning the market, by boom and bust, panic, depression and prosperity, war and revolution, unsettled conditions, not stability.
Thus, the free-enterprise system is the bedrock of populist economic policy.
There is great confusion-particularly among the "conservative" writers-on this point. Many even equate populism with socialism.
Populism is, however, anti-socialist. Populism opposes the doctrine of class struggle, which is the essence of the alien Marxist ideology.
Wealth, in the populist viewpoint, is a proper goal for all. This is consistent with the central populist belief in private property and free enterprise.
Socialism holds that both free enterprise and private ownership are evil and perverse. Capitalism tends toward monopoly and the restriction of ownership and control to an elect few of the cleverest and unprincipled-the mattoids.
Because populism recognizes the inequality of human gifts, profits are philosophically grounded. Socialism, as capitalism and conservatism, incites class antagonism. Socialism carries equality to its logical conclu-sion and aims to overthrow and murder the entire "owning" class-including farmers, small entrepreneurs, homeowners and the entire middle class. This policy was carried out in the USSR, China and Cambodia. About one hundred million have perished.
Populists, unlike socialists, do not condemn the producing middle class, nor even the "upper" class. Only a handful of irresponsible monopoly capitalists need be removed from influence-and this can be accomplished by an educated middle class, aware of the threats posed by monopoly capitalism, and seeing how the monopolists control events by remaining in the background.
'OLD HICKORY' WAS POPULIST Populist respect for private property rights does not diminish the insistence that the rich and influential not be permitted to abuse their wealth by exploiting the less fortunate or less able.
Thus, populists advocate the breaking up of concentrations of monopoly capital, and the fostering of free-enterprise competition.
Andrew Jackson expressed the populist philosophy most succinctly.
He said:
"Distinctions in society will always exist under any just government.
Equality of talents, of education or of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions.
"In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society-the farmers, mechanics and laborers-who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain about the injustice of the government.
"There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses.
"Ifit would confine itselfto equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing." Thus, populism remains America's only hope for salvation from . the self-destructive policies promoted by liberals and conservatives, Marxists and Adam Smith libertarians.
Liberal doctrine is clearly responsible for America's predicament today, yet "conservatives" have nothing different to offer.
From: POPULISM vs PLUTOCRACY:
The Universal Struggle by W.A. Carto
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