“We discover that the fortunes realized by our manufacturers are no longer solely the reward of sturdy industry and enlightened foresight, but that they result from the discriminating favor of the Government and are largely built upon undue exactions from the masses of our people.
The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor.
As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel.
Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.”
President Grover Cleveland, State of the Union, December 3, 1888
“Untouched by the breath of God, unrestricted by human conscience, both capitalism and socialism are repulsive… Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty.”
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
So…not much has changed in the last 127 years .