Capital Control Quotes
In 1902 there was a major coal and railroad labor crisis. The owners and operators refused to negotiate or bargain with labor: This quotation is very famous because it is an iconic picture of the views and attitudes of the large industiralists at the turn of the 20th Century. More than opposing labor unions, they actually believed that God had selected them to run the economic and business affairs of the country if not the world. It was their Christian values and paternalism that the workers should look to in order to determine the rights and priviliges of the working man or woman. This upper class attitude was one of the major reasons that class warfare broke into the open. Ironically, there was not much difference between the attidudes of the industiral leaders and the notions of fudalism.
His reference was to economic crises where governments try to restrict outflow of capital, decrease inflationary behavior, invest more money, stop investing money, revaluing the currency, and others—are all hard to do politically and technically as well. Worse, they don’t often work very well.
Banks often lie. The system encourages them to do so. In a crisis, if a bank honestly says that it is not sure that it has enough cash and other liquid assets, others will not lend it any more money and depositors will rush to withdraw their money, thereby almost insuring a failure. The bank that lies, might weather the storm and survive.
This futuristic work attempted to project American life in the year 2000—then 112 years in the future. It is remarkable how many elements he successfully predicted. In this quotation a character in 2000 looks “backward” and correctly describes what occurred well after Bellamy’s death. This prediction describes the early 20th century quite well.
