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I’ve been reading through Upton Sinclair’s Oil! for some time now. It’s really an enjoyable book to read, but it’s taking me forever to read. Anyone who thinks they know Sinclair’s or my philosophies will “know” we differ greatly. But from reading Oil! I’ve begun to think we may be a lot closer than I previously had thought.

According to Sinclair, big corporations become “bigger” (and by bigger, I mean eviler) by gaining government favors, usually in exchange for some form of bribery on the part of the capitalist. Workers can never gain the upper hand in this sort of system where the big guys are constantly overpowering them. The socialist’s fix? “Workers of the world unite!” Supposedly, this will solve the problem, because then the capitalist will be at the mercy of his workers. Except until the capitalist calls in his favors from the people he’s bribed and gets the army (or some such armed faction) to come in and stomp on the workers. Epic fail for the socialists.

Since the big guy controls everything, he will almost certainly be able to find other “workers” who will be willing to quash any other worker uprising. Looking past the economic impracticality/impossibility of socialism, the plausibility of the mass of workers overpowering their so-called overlords seems to be just as unattainable.

According to me, capitalists are not by themselves inherently evil: they become evil (“bigger”) only by means of government aid. Notice the similarity and contrast with Sinclair’s belief?

Sinclair looks more like: Capitalism –> evil –> government

Mine is like: Government –> evil –> capitalism

In either case, however, “evil” is abundant. How would I solve the problem of evil? I’d suggest that government not have such a coercive force. But then the practicality problem still exists: Wouldn’t people or groups still exist which could go around bossing others around? I suppose they might.

And so ultimately, I can’t help but contemplate how both ends of the spectrum are so similar.