“The American system of ours, call it Americanism, call it capitalism, call it what you like, gives each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it”—Al Capone, 1929 interview, quoted by Claud Cockburn, In Time of Trouble, 1956.
Al Capone thought of himself as a businessman, praising capitalism and condemning socialism as the head of the Chicago Outfit. He couldn’t understand why other wealthy Americans didn’t see him as one of them, and I agree with Big Al, there are more similarities than differences.
Capone had the pretention of entitlement down, but lacked the formal education to be one of them—particularly old money. And he didn’t understand a central tenet of American capitalism as practiced—to be a respected plutocrat one manipulates the system to change the laws so that what one is doing is legal (if perhaps, immoral).
Instead Capone paid off the police to overlook his illegal operations, which worked well for a time. Like the ruling plutocrats, he donated to political campaigns to rent government officials.
True, Capone killed a lot of people, but was not nearly as successful at this as the business class of today. Today the capitalists kill millions of people annually without so much as receiving a slap on the wrist, and they have such a tight grip on mainstream media that the masses don’t even hear whispers about the carnage.
Capone made no serious attempt at controlling the media, and that helped do him in, as newspapers made war on his Chicago Outfit.
In my youth, I met several men who had once worked for Al Capone, and every one of them liked him. They talked about Capone offering them jobs during the Great Depression, when it was difficult for most workers to find employment. All of them had driven trucks into Canada, loaded up with booze, and brought it back to warehouses in the USA.
Most Americans were not opposed to liquor during the Prohibition years, when my own grandfather made whiskey on his farm in North Dakota (having to give the local sheriff a gallon jug of moonshine monthly for protection).
Capone was seen as a kind of Robin Hood by many in the working class, whose families were saved from starvation by the Chicago Outfit at a time before there was a minimal safety net in the land. There are a number of stories about Capone helping people down on their luck.
But Capone never did this:
Today the capitalists pollute our environment as the cost of doing business, killing millions of people annually around the world. Little is ever done about this—no CEO goes to prison.
Today bankster scams which led up to the 2008 recession, caused millions to lose their jobs and millions more to lose their homes and no CEO went to prison.
Today, one industry, tobacco, kills from 6 to 8 million people annually around the world. The executives know they are killing people, but continue to produce the poison because it makes massive profits for them (I assume they are psychopaths).
Today, millions around the world die in accidents in known dangerous workplaces and from unsafe products known to be dangerous, every year and no CEO goes to prison.
Conclusion
Al Capone probably didn’t kill over a few hundred people in his lifetime, and that includes the bombing of speakeasies whose managers would not allow him to provide their booze.
What we should be asking is why Capone was called “Public enemy number one,” and why many of today’s CEO’s and their wealthy investors who slaughter millions run loose in our streets—leaving hunger, homelessness and despair in their wake.
Jack Balkwill has been published from the little read Rectangle, magazine of the English Honor Society, to the (then) millions of readers USA Today and many progressive publications/web sites such as Z Magazine, In These Times, Counterpunch, This Can’t Be Happening, Intrepid Report, and Dissident Voice. He is author of “An Attack on the National Security State,” about peace activists in prison.
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Al Capone caused less death and destruction than today’s capitalists
Posted on March 1, 2016 by Jack Balkwill
Al Capone thought of himself as a businessman, praising capitalism and condemning socialism as the head of the Chicago Outfit. He couldn’t understand why other wealthy Americans didn’t see him as one of them, and I agree with Big Al, there are more similarities than differences.
Capone had the pretention of entitlement down, but lacked the formal education to be one of them—particularly old money. And he didn’t understand a central tenet of American capitalism as practiced—to be a respected plutocrat one manipulates the system to change the laws so that what one is doing is legal (if perhaps, immoral).
Instead Capone paid off the police to overlook his illegal operations, which worked well for a time. Like the ruling plutocrats, he donated to political campaigns to rent government officials.
True, Capone killed a lot of people, but was not nearly as successful at this as the business class of today. Today the capitalists kill millions of people annually without so much as receiving a slap on the wrist, and they have such a tight grip on mainstream media that the masses don’t even hear whispers about the carnage.
Capone made no serious attempt at controlling the media, and that helped do him in, as newspapers made war on his Chicago Outfit.
In my youth, I met several men who had once worked for Al Capone, and every one of them liked him. They talked about Capone offering them jobs during the Great Depression, when it was difficult for most workers to find employment. All of them had driven trucks into Canada, loaded up with booze, and brought it back to warehouses in the USA.
Most Americans were not opposed to liquor during the Prohibition years, when my own grandfather made whiskey on his farm in North Dakota (having to give the local sheriff a gallon jug of moonshine monthly for protection).
Capone was seen as a kind of Robin Hood by many in the working class, whose families were saved from starvation by the Chicago Outfit at a time before there was a minimal safety net in the land. There are a number of stories about Capone helping people down on their luck.
But Capone never did this:
Conclusion
Al Capone probably didn’t kill over a few hundred people in his lifetime, and that includes the bombing of speakeasies whose managers would not allow him to provide their booze.
What we should be asking is why Capone was called “Public enemy number one,” and why many of today’s CEO’s and their wealthy investors who slaughter millions run loose in our streets—leaving hunger, homelessness and despair in their wake.
Jack Balkwill has been published from the little read Rectangle, magazine of the English Honor Society, to the (then) millions of readers USA Today and many progressive publications/web sites such as Z Magazine, In These Times, Counterpunch, This Can’t Be Happening, Intrepid Report, and Dissident Voice. He is author of “An Attack on the National Security State,” about peace activists in prison.