One of the best predictors of policy around is Thomas Ferguson's

Hear, O seekers of wisdom, the words of Noam Chomsky, sage and critic of power, who declared: “One of the best predictors of policy around is Thomas Ferguson’s investment theory of politics, as he calls it—very outstanding political economist—which essentially—I mean, to say it in a sentence, he describes elections as occasions in which groups of investors coalesce and invest to control the state.” In these words lies a revelation of the hidden machinery of power: that beneath the banners and ballots, money flows like a secret river, guiding the course of nations.

For Thomas Ferguson’s investment theory of politics teaches us this: elections are not merely gatherings of citizens in free choice, but battles in which the wealthy stake their gold to shape the destiny of the state. Investors, whether corporations or great lords of industry, come together not out of charity but to secure their interests. Their wealth buys influence, their influence bends policy, and the will of the people is too often drowned beneath the clamor of coins.

Consider the Gilded Age of America in the late nineteenth century. Then, vast fortunes rose from steel, oil, and railroads. Men like Rockefeller, Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan poured their wealth into controlling politics. Presidents and senators were chosen not by the humble farmer or factory worker, but by the invisible hand of financiers who purchased loyalty with gold. Policies were written to favor the mighty, while the poor labored in misery. Here is Ferguson’s theory made flesh: elections as investments, states as instruments of wealth.

Yet Chomsky’s recounting is not mere despair, but a call to awareness. To understand the truth of politics is the first step in resisting its corruption. When citizens believe elections to be only the voice of the people, they are blind. When they see that power is brokered like merchandise, they may rise to demand transparency, fairness, and reform. For though investors may command wealth, the multitude commands numbers, and history has shown that numbers, when awakened, can overturn empires.

Therefore, let this lesson endure: policy often follows the path of money, not the voice of the people. But knowledge of this fact is itself a weapon. To know that elections are bought is to seek ways to make them free. To understand the hidden game is to resist it. Chomsky’s words, echoing Ferguson’s wisdom, remind us that democracy must be defended not only at the ballot box, but in the ceaseless struggle against the tyranny of wealth.