David Brooks is a Complete Idiot*

Via SocProf, Matt Taibbi's excellent takedown of David Brooks' latest inanity. Here's the main body blow, as I see it:

In some cases what we’re talking about is the highly complicated merger of crime and policy, of stealing and government, which is both fascinating from a journalistic point of view and ought to be terrifying from the point of view of any citizen, rich or poor.

Taibbi doesn't say it, because he is talking about a particular story — Goldman Sachs — but the truth is that government under capitalism is always a mixture of crime and policy. The state exists to facilitate the theft of wealth from workers by owners. The state is how the wealthy rig the game in their favor.

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* But then, you knew that, didn't you?