From a web page I came across - after searching and I having the same problem - no attribution whatsoever anywhere. + + + "Competition is (a) sin” is often credited to John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937), the founder of the Standard Oil Company. The saying has been attributed to Rockefeller since at least 1971, but there is insufficient evidence that Rockefeller said it. + + + No doubt he was a so-called cutthroat businessman but they need not make chit up about him.
%% I never believed the muck slingers/mudslingers who nicknamed him a'' robber baron''; he was a Baptist..... And as far the news papers of his day /political cartoons,LOL; i seldom believe newspapers.WSJ has made so many/promoted PE goofs= i believe WSJ + IBD charts.[Edit if the state of PA overregulated /sued his refineries like EPA did until 2017, MR Rockefeller could be right LOL]
To talk intelligently about Socialism one should read the founders literary works e.g. Karl Marx etc.
Q China, officially the People's Republic of China, is formally a multi-party state under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in a United Front similar to the popular fronts of former Communist-era Eastern European countries such as the National Front of Democratic Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_China Relationships with the Communist Party In practice, only one political party, the CPC, holds effective power at the national level. Its dominance is such that China is effectively a one-party state. Eight minor parties also participate in the political system. However, they have limited power on a national level and are almost completely subservient to the CPC; they must accept the "leading role" of the CPC as a condition of being allowed to exist. The Chinese political system allows for the participation of some non-communist party members and minor parties in the National People's Congress (NPC), but they are vetted by the CPC. The constitution of China describes it as "The system of the multi-party cooperation and political consultation led by the Communist Party of China will exist and develop for a long time to come" in the preamble[2]. Although opposition parties are not formally banned in China, the CPC maintains control over the political system in several ways. Firstly, only the people's congresses/assemblies up to the county level (or district under a municipality) are subject to direct popular vote. Even such a lower-level direct election can be highly controlled or managed by the CPC and higher level governmental bodies. Above the county level, one people's congress appoints the members of the next higher congress. This means that although independent members can theoretically, and occasionally in practice, get elected to the lowest level of congress, it is impossible for them to organize to the point where they can elect members to the next higher people's congress without the approval of the CPC or to exercise oversight over executive positions at the lowest level in the hierarchy. This lack of effective power also discourages outsiders from contesting the people's congress elections even at the lowest level. Second, although Chinese law has no formal provision for banning a non-religious organization, it also has no provision which would give non-CPC political parties any corporate status. This means that a hypothetical opposition party would have no legal means to collect funds or own property in the name of the party. More importantly, Chinese law also has a wide range of offenses which can and have been used against the leaders of efforts to form an opposition party such as the China Democracy Party and against members of organizations that the CPC sees as threatening its power.[3][4] These include the crimes of subversion, sedition, and releasing state secrets. Moreover, the control that the Party has over the legislative and judicial processes means that the Party can author legislation that targets a particular group. Thirdly, Article 1 of the Constitution of China defines socialism as "the basic system" of the country, and explicitly forbids "sabotage of the socialist system by any individual or organization."[5] UQ
Absolutely ! One should read them and study them ... year after year through mid-school, through high-school, through college and through grad school, and even to continue polishing the knowledge through the later years. One should also write essays on the different subjects of Marxism-Leninism, be well versed in ideas and issues of the theory of Socialism (which as the Party taught us, is a Communism today), take tests on the subject and write a dissertation on the issue before being alowed to earn a degree. But even better one should live his live through it, generation after generation, to see and to feel on his own ass how the words becoming the reality ! One should live trough the history of millions executions... be it during Gulag years in Russia, or during Cultural Revolution in China. One should live through the hunger and misery and deprivation of those great ideas when realized in reality. One should live trough the beauty of the guarantee free medical service when any westerner would puke if step in into the soviet hospital, live through the grandiose guarantee of job for everybody (so much available jobs that any one refuse to work - is going to the prison).. jobs that payed kopecks (cents). One should see empty shelves in supermarkets, and ration on food (i am talking mid 1970 an 80th) not during war with Nazis. One should live through miserable living condition when 6 people live in a studio and for 20 years waiting for the bigger apartment from the government. One should live through the "freedom of expression" when one should think very carefully what and whom he is saying.. through not published books, through prohibited song, ideas, subjects ... And when all of this finally became obvious to the whole world and to the people who lived through that, when it became obvious that those ideas of fucking Marx and Engels are not for people , but for the cattle (which we became), after all of that I am reading on the western forum advocates for socialism ! Well I do remember Marx once more when he started his Communist Manifesto with this words (citing by memory): "The ghost is walking all over Europe, the ghost of Communism" Yea, he was right : the ghost walked then and it still walking there...and it came here too... I tried to escaped it, but it walks right behind me And you know why that happening, why the ghost is alive and claiming still more fans and devotees all over the world? There is a scene in Doctor Zhivago when an anarchist in shackles who is sent to the forced labor camp by the authorities saying to the watching public on the cattle cart of the train: "I am the only free man on this train the rest of you are cattle !" People are cattle !
In the UK version of Socialism it was the intention to liberate the workers from the shackles of the robber barons, who paid as little as possible and robbed the company of its wealth. Called exploitation. Stalin and the rest were no Socialists. Just used the name to grab onto power and keep it. Even the Nazis called their party National Socialists. Well that's politics for you.