And, as this is often the desire or ultimate goal of those over whom the state exerts the most force over, regulations and judicial response fall precisely into your above sentiment. To remove all regulation is merely to allow the pressure to shift to the judiciary, and give greater latitude to those who feel it is their entitlement as the nobility, whether attained or inherited, to run roughshod over the bulk of humanity. Mandatory minimum sentencing was introduced to protect minorities from excessive and false charges through subjecting caucasians to the same level of judicial rulings, but has simply turned into harsher and often senseless, rehabilitation-void punishment for minorities while caucasians just don’t get arrested or charged.

Second, the end quote assumes money and power are separable. Money and power convert as quickly and fludily as anything, and in all practicality are the same thing. So long as either exist, both will exist.

thirdly, there are goals in any civilization that can never be achieved by any individual, group, corporation or corporate group, especially in the scientific arena. When the rulers of the market wish to bend the market in one direction, but the constituency’s purchasing power or overwhelming scientific consensus, or projects on a continental or global scale become priorities is not enough to change minds and bend human and financial capital in another, an artifice is needed to ensure the national allocation of power, funds and ability does not come to resemble only what the owners of the means of production wish it to.

TR frames his story as a warning against the government giving a private citizen something that he is not entitled; but as a poster above noted, if we accept the premise that the government ought to be giving out goods or services (in a positive sense), then we will eternally argue over which goods or services a citizen is actually entitled to.

The only solution is to get government out of the business of assisting (in the POSITIVE sense) anyone – no subsidies, no redistribution, nothing. Its responsibilities must be solely reactive: it must do justice to those who were subject to harm, loss or injury by another citizen, and it must protect the citizenry from external invasion. This is ALL that it should do.

We hear so often about the dangers of money in politics, as money can “buy” votes. Why would anybody wish to “buy” a vote? So that the politician whose vote is bought will later assist their donor through subsidies, tax breaks, or favorable regulation. Take away the government’s power to do these things, however, and the question of “money in politics” becomes moot.

“The solution to money buying power is to limit not the money but the power.”

http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/research/speech%20arena.htm

Mark Twain, who met him twice, judged that he was “clearly insane”

Geez, even a complete imperialist like TR says something correct now and again, but the fawning above is a bit much.
Forget the public-school diatribes we all were taught, find the true histories and read those…