When Alexis de Tocqueville talked about the “soft despotism” that would threaten American democracy, almost 200 years ago, maybe he was right, judging by the response to my column last week.
Maybe by instinct we want to exist under the comforting boot of some benevolent billionaire aristocracy, as long as it appears to be looking after us.
Maybe the whole enlightenment thing and the invention of disruptive free markets, capitalism and democracy was just some unfamiliar blip in the codex. Because make no mistake. The billionaire class, and the vast, calcifying accumulation of capital and power it represents, is a direct threat to all these things.
What gets me is we think we need these billionaires to take care of us. If the billionaires weren’t dominating our local grocery store scene, we wouldn’t know how to sell ourselves food. If the billionaires didn’t control our local forestry sector, we wouldn’t know how to rip a single two by four.
What happened to us, Prince George? We used to grow almost all our own food. We used to produce most of our own local dairy products. We used to have dozens of independent sawmills and sawmill owners, the highest per capita income in Canada, the highest number of millionaires in Canada for a city our size. And now we think we need Jim Pattison’s “investment” in order to survive?
Somewhere along the line something went seriously wrong with our sense of independence, self-sufficiency, and self-confidence.
And I blame government.
Over time, driven by special interests, our democracy has gradually brought in a web of rules and regulations to stifle competition to the benefit of the big corporations, not just Pattison, and has allowed monopolies and monopsonies to emerge, unrestrained by the 100+ year old antitrust laws that were meant to prevent it.
If I don’t like the billionaire grocery store stranglehold, I can shop somewhere else, I’m told. But where? Nobody can compete with the increasingly vertically-integrated megacorporations that dominate our food supply system.
Maybe I want to buy direct from the source. We have local options for vegetables, such as the Farmer’s Market, Cariboo Growers or Hope Farm Organics, but good luck with milk and dairy products, the production of which is almost entirely the domain of large corporations protected by government rules and regulations, and increasingly exists on a scale only to serve the big corporate outlets, not you. Same with most wood products. And good luck setting up that sawmill business.
Even the car dealerships, the basis of Pattison’s wealth, are government-protected, anti-competitive fiefdoms.
You could argue a groundbreaking invention or superstar athletic ability makes a legitimate billionaire.
But scratch the surface of most billionaires and all you find is someone who gamed a rigged system and has now emerged as an incredibly powerful kingpin to our existence.
Nothing about that is beneficial to, or reflective of, free enterprise, free markets, competition, and democracy. It’s inside baseball.
Next time you defend the emerging billionaire aristocracy, which threatens our local independence, economic opportunity, and our very democracy, just remember what Alexis warned us about all those years ago.
James Steidle is a Prince George writer.
