Three parallels

Since 2008 I’ve been trying to highlight and illustrate better ways of solving the problems created by Wall Street. The New Deal was the most effective solution. It was preceded by Mutual Benefit Societies in the 1880s, then Social Economics around 1910. All three movements continued in various ways until Wall Street finally killed everything in the 1980s.

In some ways FDR simply adopted the goals and methods of both Mutual Benefit and Social Economics. He tried to make life better for workers, giving them training and work and security against old age or disability.

All three movements were attempting to restore the benefits of feudalism, the TWO-WAY OBLIGATION between employer and worker, required by Natural Law and forbidden by Wall Street sweatshops.

Henry Ford, the best implementer of Social Economics, was working in parallel with FDR. Franklin knew it but Henry didn’t.

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Henry Ford was allegedly antisemitic, but in fact his love of Germany was typical of US industrialists at that time. We have always loved and emulated Krauts, except for the brief moments when we were fighting them.

Henry was DIFFERENT from other industrialists in his respect for the Soviet experiment. He tried to open a factory in Russia but ran into problems because he didn’t understand that Russians are more individualistic and freedom-loving than Americans.

Henry respected the Soviet experiment and hated Wall Street for a consistent FACTUAL reason. His business AND his product were aimed at serving the needs of poor people. He understood that Wall Street enriches stock traders and kills poor people. When NYC controls capital allocation, capital slaughters the poor. The Soviet experiment attempted to allocate capital for the benefit of ordinary people, and mostly succeeded.

Henry was correct in those beliefs and biases.

BUT he also hated Franklin Roosevelt because FDR was a “socialist”.

This contradicted Henry’s genuine socialism, and contradicted all the facts about Henry and Franklin. In fact Henry and Franklin were on the same side in every important way.

1. Henry and Franklin were both non-interventionists. Henry’s dislike of war was called antisemitic. Franklin’s dislike of war was not.

2. Henry and Franklin both hated Wall Street. Henry couldn’t do much about it, so he refused to participate. His refusal was called antisemitic. Franklin did EVERYTHING about it, bringing the demonic predators under harsh control. His crackdown was not called antisemitic.

3. Henry and Franklin provided useful employment for poor whites and blacks.

4. Henry and Franklin trained poor people to organize their lives outside of work.

5. Henry and Franklin were especially concerned about farmers. The Model T was optimized for farm use, and later Ford cars and trucks continued the tradition. Franklin saved farmers from destruction, enabling them to continue buying Fords.

6. Franklin bought a ’38 Ford for his own use and had it fitted with hand controls. In ’38, Buick and Olds had semi-auto transmissions that would have been more suited for hand controls, but Franklin wanted to be seen in the working man’s car.

7. Even if we think of Henry as a crass capitalist, he should have appreciated the CCC’s roads and parks and tourist destinations, which vastly expanded the market for cars.

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New thought: Henry wasn’t alone in Social Economics, and FDR wasn’t alone. He had a huge team of talented and passionate helpers, and he must also have had some allies in big business. The Social Economics crowd already understood that they needed to restrain their natural all-encompassing greed if they wanted to survive at all. Henry didn’t recognize the parallel, but others in powerful positions must have sympathized and actively assisted. Otherwise the New Deal wouldn’t have made any headway at all.

For instance, Walter Chrysler tried to handle the 1930s without as many plant closings and firings as GM. Chrysler tried to increase efficiency and simplify model variety instead of solely chopping. He recognized the value of CCC’s roads and parks.

When Harding tried to make some of the same changes, he clearly had no sympathizers in the press or the business world. The revolutionary forces weren’t large or threatening enough in 1920. He was mercilessly scandaled into submission and indirectly killed.

Back in 1968 I attended a speech by Dick Gregory. He was talking about the Detroit riots of the previous year. He noted that the manufacturers were starting to get the message after “the fire got too close to their Mustangs.”

The fire is getting close to the insurance end of the Wall Street world. Is it close to the Mustangs yet? Probably not.