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Articles:
Politics
Are
We Losing Democracy to Corporatocracy?
Monday, May 16, 2005
In
a democracy such as the United States, the people are supposed
to be the final word on running the country, the states, and
local government. We either vote directly on important issues,
or elect representatives we trust will act in our best interest.
If our representatives don't do what we want, we're obligated
to replace them. But what happens when elected officials no
longer act in the people's interest, and the people don't
seem to care?
Assume
you ran for office, received a lot of contributions, and won
the race. Looking back at who supported your campaign, you
see 100,000 contributions from individuals, varying in amounts
from 100 to 2,000 dollars. You also see 100 contributions
from large corporations, each one over 100,000 dollars. The
total individual contributions exceed the total corporate
contributions by a significant amount. But now that you're
in office you have to play the patronage game. You have to
show your appreciation to your donors. You have to appease
your supporters so they support you again when you run for
reelection. You don't want to have to give up your comfy office,
steady salary, and position of power, do you? In order to
make your contributors happy, you have to push their agenda.
Seeking the most bang-for-the-buck, you realize it would be
easier to make 100 corporations happy than 100,000 individuals.
Besides, they each contribute more than individuals. So you
bend over backwards to give the corporations what they want,
expecting them to repeat their lucrative donations next time
you run for office.
First,
the businesses want relaxed standards for toxic emissions
from their factories. Purification equipment costs money,
and shareholders don't want to see a 100 million dollar profit
when they could see a 110 million dollar profit. Besides,
the executives at the companies want more bonuses, stock options,
luxury cars, mansions, and yachts. Clean air, fewer health
problems, and quality of life for the masses are things that
do not concern them. Why put money into air purifiers when
they could put that money in their pockets? More money for
the company also means more money for you, next time you run
for office.
Next,
the corporations want to fight any increase in the minimum
wage standard. Labor costs money, and more money for other
people means less money for them. It doesn't matter to them
if their workers make six dollars per hour instead of ten.
They don't care how much trouble they have living under the
poverty line, trying to raise a family, find affordable health
care, or pay their housing costs. They just want them to come
to work every day and work as hard as they can to push profits
ever higher. It's great to have a cheap labor pool that works
so hard to make the company, and the executives, fabulously
wealthy.
Finally,
the big businesses want tax breaks so they can post higher
profits, pay themselves more, and pay YOU more for doing their
political dirty work! Never mind that the common drones remain
buried under income tax, property tax, sales tax, and the
like. The corporations are too good for that. They have the
money to elect officials, put them in their pocket, and make
sure they don't have to pay silly things like taxes. Taxes
are for the complacent masses. Let them fund the government.
Businesses need more money for their executives, so they can
keep working hard to make themselves, and YOU, more money!
Who cares if their hourly worker can't pay the property tax
on his house and it's going to be seized? The corporations
have a twenty year tax abatement. It makes perfect sense to
give up hundreds of thousand of dollars in local taxes in
order to employ thirty local people at minimum wage. The businesses
are doing them a favor by paying them next to nothing, while
simultaneously denying them adequate police and fire protection
because of under-funded local tax coffers.
Now
you know what your corporate donors want out of you. What
do your individual supporters want? Do most people want clean
air, a healthy environment, quality of life, a living wage,
and lower taxes? They do? Who cares! Your corporate masters
don't care if most people have those things, they just want
to be sure they can make more money. So you act in the interest
of those who gave you the most money and got you elected.
You do the bidding of the wealthy minority instead of the
majority. Will the majority see your impropriety and not reelect
you? Your corporate masters will reward you for working on
their behalf. They'll throw so much money at you that your
reelection campaign will be a guaranteed victory. You'll have
all kinds of money to slander your opponent and create lots
of colorful propaganda about all the great work you do for
the common man. The masses will believe it all, and fall in
line at the polls. After all, they're too busy being worried
about paying their bills, raising their kids, and making ends
meet on a shoestring budget to concern themselves with politics.
A simple thirty-second television spot showing you patting
a poor kid on the head will win their hearts and their votes.
They'll be too busy trying to survive to take the time to
look past the glamour and money and see the truth. Even if
they did, they don't have the time or energy to do anything
about it. Learning the candidates and the issues are much
lower priorities than working two jobs, fighting to pay the
bills, scraping up enough money to take the kids to the doctor,
worrying about losing the house, taking classes to try to
get a better job and more money, and collapsing from exhaustion
at the end of the day.
Corporations
give the most money, win the elections for their political
puppets, and get their agendas met. The people are pushed
farther down, take less of an interest in politics, and don't
question the system. Over time, democracy becomes a joke.
The people are no longer actively choosing their representation.
They surrender to a system they don't believe they have the
time, energy, or money to fight, and let those that do have
the time, energy, and money choose for them. But are the interests
of the corporations the same as the interests of the individuals?
Are the elected doing what is best for the majority of their
constituency? Or are they merely giving patronage to their
largest donors, while letting the people rot? Do those with
money run government, and how do the people take power back
from those moneyed interests? What would it take for the people
to collectively stand up and say "enough is enough"?
The
only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties
is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when
corporations knock on their door. --Ralph Nader
In
constant pursuit of money to finance campaigns, the political
system is simply unable to function. Its deliberative powers
are paralyzed. --John Rawls
Nothing
strengthens authority so much as silence. --Leonardo da Vinci
Few
men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. --George
Washington
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