The Settlement of Ohio and the Oligarchy Problem

Most of the history of Europe has been punctuated by horror show incidents on various scales. Rapacious, murderous thugs, i.e. "the aristocracy" fought non stop for control of land and people for centuries. From the point of view of an average person, the aristocrats were at best domineering control freaks, and at worst lunatic mafiosi of the worst kind. Their behavior is paralleled today by the action of Mexican drug cartels.

The violent behavior of the aristocracy was only possible because it was supported by cooperation, productive pursuits, and productive people. This is one of the great paradoxes of the human condition--small bands of the worst can take from large numbers of the best. It's as if the productive and cooperative people do not have any immunity to a virus in their midst.

Two events in the history of Ohio show how this "works". In recent years, a small coalition of people tried to pass a referendum to "legalize" marijuana in the state. The legalization was to create an oligopoly in the currently "illegal" $2B/year marijuana business so a few hands would control the market. People voted the referendum down. Pot is only illegal in Ohio since it can't be controlled by the "right" families and their cronies.

During the founding of Ohio, the United States government prevented settlers from starting farms in the state in an ad hoc fashion. Instead, once it had claim to the land from the British, and then from Indian "tribes" (i.e. the tribal leaders that agreed and were paid to make treaties), it sold the land first to Companies (which were organized by Freemasons for what it's worth) at wholesale prices, and then to individuals. The sales helped finance the United States revolutionary war debts.

It's an interesting thought experiment to imagine what would have happened had individuals struck deals with Indian Tribes rather than through the US government. The tribes could have worked with the European powers toward that end, however the European powers were too greedy to make that work, or the settlers and the Indians could have worked that out on their own to create a truly "free country".

There's little doubt the United States deal with the common man was a huge improvement with the deal European aristocrats cut with the common man, but the oligarchs were active in the US basically from day one, and the country has been getting more and more European-ish since.