Capitalism, whether in its liberal or conservative form, is primarily going to support capital, big business. When I was an undergraduate student at SUNY at Albany, the Philosophy, Political Science and Sociology departments were primarily Marxist and I read a lot of Marx, especially the younger Marx, Bruno Bauer and Feuerbach. I fell in love with Feuerbach, who was probably the greatest humanist I ever read, along with Marx's Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.
Although Trump's policies primarily benefit the wealthy, there is no question he addressed the concerns of the working class much more than Obama/Clinton. And the working class vote put Trump over the Top in MI, WI and PA.
I took a vow after I read Marx, never to work for Big Business. However, a strange turn took place in my life. After I left my university education, I began a private tutoring business while working for the NYC Board of Education as a HS Math teacher. I was working long hours because I was very much in demand as a private tutor. I was in such demand that I needed to leave the NYC Board of ED and devote full time to my tutoring business. I had no problems filling in slots during the day when children were in school. I was tutoring college students, mothers and wives, along with people who were working on the assembly line of GM and Ford who needed to upgrade their skills. Then an opportunity arose where I opened up a learning center. I had a few hundred people on my payroll. I was a businessman. It was all so surreal. Here I was someone who hated big business and their treatment of the worker, who was now a capitalist. I was actually looking for ways to maximize profit, to make more and more money. I was socking money away (and buying real estate and investing in the stock market) beyond my wildest dreams. I began to read every financial magazine under the sun. (My favorite was Forbes).
One day I had one of my tutors come into my office and burst into tears: she told me she can't meet ends meat working as a single mother with 3 kids. I gave her cash under the table and told her to keep her mouth shut about this or I would fire her. When I came home and told my wife about this, she said you sure have come full circle, haven't you? She then said, my whole family was worried about you when I told them we were getting married, but I told them I was confident he would come around and make a lot of money. I said, really?
I sold my learning center to Sylvan in early 2000 at the top of the tutoring market peak. |
