Woody Guthrie Quotes
Now as through this world I ramble, I see lots of funny men, Some rob you with a six gun, And some with a fountain pen.
Guthrie, Woody. "Pretty Boy Floyd." American Folksong, Moses Asch, 1947.
This is a common rejoinder of third world country leaders to accusations of Western democracies about corruption. And doubtless it is true. However temptation has never been a good defense of improper behavior.
O, you anarchic scum, you cowardly murderers, you leeches upon honest labor, you midnight assassins!
Otis and his paper were virulently anti-labor. See {617172} .
There were few if any consumer protection laws in those days and many wealthy aristocrats made their money by taking advantage of the poor. They were the landowners, bankers, financiers and often the industrialists. Shaw was a sarcastic social critic and this is a typical line he gave his upper class characters. Today, we have more controls on business and finance, and many wealthy business people have gotten that way by providing great value to the consumers and being honest. However, we still have large numbers of wealthy members of society who do make their money from the poor and middle class by unethical and often illegal means. In the aftermath of the Meltdown of 2008. hundreds of thousands of the homes of the working poor and middle class were foreclosed by the major banks forging the legal documentation for the foreclusures. Millions of consumer contracts are issued that even a PhD cannot understand the terms of without special legal and financial training. There is even a legal definition of a salesperson lying to make a sale which is so commonplace that our law excuses it and calls it "puffing". However, there has been over time, improvement over Shaw's era.
Here is another example of “the good old days” phenomenon. Similar complaints are made in most generations about most vices.
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was an American singer-songwriter, who is one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His music, including songs such as "This Land Is Your Land", has inspired several generations both politically and musically.
