I have read this a few times over the years and I have slowly come to the conclusion that this is propaganda to promote robber barons.

It is making the problem we face into a false binary where one side that is irritating but mostly powerless is made to look even worse than the hidden force of the power elite that we are programmed to ignore and condone because it is not as bad as a hypothetical do-gooder in charge.

Both sides of the binary are bad but the middle ground where the people reap the rewards of the land and have a say in the management is preferable to either centrally directed nightmare.