“I own myself the friend to a very free system of commerce, and hold it as a truth, that commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive and impolitic -- it is also a truth, that if industry and labour are left to take their own course, they will generally be directed to those objects which are the most productive, and this in a more certain and direct manner than the wisdom of the most enlightened legislature could point out.”

John Davison Rockefeller put the lie to that one.

anonymous, Rockefeller proved the point - government was his friend. Your comment is a good example of a perspective from legal positivism and a complete lack of knowledge of natural law, order and justice.

Unions, in concept, are an excellent equalizer to free commerce gone illegally (at natural law) wrong. By application, in an unenlightened legislature, criminal acts such as in bankruptcy, making unions owners of a commercial venture they helped to bankrupt prove the quote's accuracy.

Well said Mike.

Kudos Mike!

@anonymous, the Rockefellers' various monopolies secured by government regulation are not what is meant by leaving industry and labor to take their own course, in fact quite the opposite. "Competition is a sin," is the Rockefeller family motto. The progressives rarely recognize their rulers because they do not follow the money all the way to the top where you will find the very oligarchy they thought they had eradicated when they tore down the free market -- all they have done is solidify the power of the monopolists, and they are poorer for it.

Exactly!