A classic from the archives of Black Oak Media.
Optimists on the Titanic
By Michael Kleen
As we blindly sail farther into the twenty first century, we are just beginning to witness the unraveling of our economic foundations. Like the fabled HMS Titanic, the U.S. economy was thought to be invincible. And like the Titanic, our economy has drifted into dangerous waters and has mired itself on an iceberg. As long as nothing too large battered its hull—as long as American consumers continued to consume—it promised to sail amid luxurious comfort and extravagance. As the passengers laughed and played, none suspected that danger lurked just beneath the surface. Even as the mighty ship slowly sank, many were convinced that the end was not at hand, and its precious few lifeboats were launched half empty. Like the Titanic’s unfortunate passengers, we too may be left floating in icy waters.
It was, of course, our fault for taking the ride.
Along with our bloated, centralized and bureaucratic social regime, we inherited from the Progressive Era an economy in which the greased up hands of the local, state, and Federal governments have replaced Adam Smith’s invisible hand. Rather than alleviating the excesses of business, unwarranted government meddling has created a new kind of monopoly capitalism administered by a class of cheerful robots who work for a handful of executives who simply sit in boardrooms and collect checks without any loyalty to our country, their employees, or even their own companies.
These behemoths are not spread out over the entire nation, rather, their headquarters are concentrated in one or two major cities, doing violence to a nation hungry for jobs, not to mention freedom of speech and expression. When the majority of publishing companies, cable television stations, and record labels are centered in one city, such as New York, and owned by the same three parent companies, it would be naïve to believe that freedom of expression is not threatened…
