Armando from Daily Kos interviews Rep. McDermott on the Common Good

On the "ownership society":

McDERMOTT: The more you live, the more you become wary of the guy selling snake oil and ... I always tell a story about my grandfather, you know, my grandfather back in the 20s the big thing was electricity and there was a guy named Samuel in Chicago, where I was born and raised. He was putting together all his electrical conglomerates and he ultimately put together Commonwealth Edison, but they were selling stock for this stuff and they came down in central Illinois where my grandfather, who had a second-grade education, and his wife came over and she said Jim, we've got to buy some of that Samuel's stock, my brother is getting rich and they are going to be millionaires, we are not going to have anything, and he said well Jane I'll tell you what, go out to the State Bank, we've got $500 down there, half of it is yours, you can buy that stock. He said, while you're walking down there, just remember or ask yourself the question, why are those tycoons from Chicago down here selling that stuff in the cornfields to people like you and me? She never bought any stock and her brother went broke.

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