William F. Buckley Jr. on National Review Online

William F. Buckley Jr. on National Review Online: "'The trouble with socialism is socialism. The trouble with capitalism is capitalists.'"

"Edison had the epiphanies, but was no good at all at exploiting them. Imagine if Gates had come up with the patent to the light bulb. What dismays is the utter lack of class in such businesses and businessmen here parading their skills in distortion. Michael Eisner appears twice in the table of the 25 largest compensation packages paid in a single year. In 1993 he took home $203 million. In 1998, $575.6 million. That money was taken, directly, from company shareholders. But the loss, viewed on a larger scale, is a loss to the community of people who believe in the capitalist free-market system. Because extortions of that size tell us, really, that the market system is not working — in respect of executive remuneration. What is going on is phony. It is shoddy, it is contemptible, and it is philosophically blasphemous."