Thursday, July 14, 2011  That's notDemocracy in the US, but it
is in the UK  In a previous post, I wrote about how the idea of
a free market, as created by Adam Smith, is actually supposed to
work, as opposed to the politically motivated, wildly distorted
image so common in recent public discussion.  That post was on
the economy.  Smith's argument, however, contains a principle
that extends far beyond economic matters.  This one:  Smith
argued that justice includes “protecting, as far as possible,
every member of the society from the injustice or oppression of
every other member of it”  In other words, there are lines that
even the rich and powerful are not supposed to be able to
cross.  We used to know that in America. In 1911, John D.
Rockefeller himself, the richest man in the world, the first
billionaire, and possibly the richest man in world history, was
cut down to size by the Supreme Court decision in Standard Oil
Co. of New Jersey v. United States, when his oversized monolith
of an oil company was bro