No, the corporate grab for everything in sight is NOT Machiavellian.

[Jackpine Radical]

Machiavelli was much smarter than that. He knew you had to leave a few crumbs for the peasants and maintain them at a level at least 1 notch above desperation lest they find themselves with nothing left to lose, at which point they are likely to rise up and kill you.

[jpgray]

1. People need to read Discourses on Livy before hating on Nick

Guy was a republican in the contemporary good sense. Anyone who only reads the Prince is getting a distorted picture--in fact some scholars go so far as to say the picture of cruelty painted there was a (so to speak) Machiavellian attack on the monarchy. Or just goin' for the ol' patronage. :D

But yeah, even by Prince standards, capitalism has a bizarre blindness when it comes to risk that doesn't make for an arbitrage opportunity.