Both, really. Americans were instrumental in pushing cheap, lower quality Turkish opium. Many of the great old East Coast fortunes were built on opium smuggling.
Many of the great old East Coast fortunes were built
on opium smuggling.
[1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cabot-family [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cabot_Lodge_Jr.
Would you also support changing the US to a monarchy? Is it different to be born into wealth than born into power?
So that makes you a libertarian who thinks any tax is theft, and estate tax is just as bad as any other tax?
I always wonder how libertarians really think society would work, when nobody cares about anything other than themselves and their own wishes. Countries with weak governments are really not that nice to live in.
Most notably the Delanos, as in FDR, and the Forbes, as in John Forbes Kerry.
They were essentially the drug cartels of the 1800's. The article goes on to say how this drug money extracted from China was used to kick start the US's industrial revolution, and still funds universities and hospitals with grants from these fortunes. But I'm not sure I see any difference between the actions of those Americans then and the drug lords now.