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Since the Reagan years corporations have taken over as the reason our government functions. The people were no longer represented but were cast aside whenever votes in Congress came down on corporate matters.
Those were the years that saw the huge increase in healthcare costs. Health insurance premiums increased as much as 80% in a year, unions began their decline in the wake of the PATCO demise, and Wall Street was introduced as our “earmark” on how our economy was doing.
It was also the period which brought in the precursor to “privatized social security”, the 401k. The gambit used to tie the average American into Wall Street. The nightly news which never failed to mention how Wall Street did on that day reinforced the idea that our economy was Wall Street.
It was during the 90's when corporations began to solidify their influence over the masses as people began flocking to places such as Enron Park, Fifth Third Arena, and other sporting places named after corporations. We lost such things as the Orange Bowl to FedEx and others such as the Frito Lay, UPS, Citigroup, and others. Corporations have become our leaders and Wall Street is their scoreboard.
During the present century laws that have been passed by Congress have NOT favored people. We have had the Bankruptcy Bill which makes individual bankruptcy moot, yet enables credit cards companies to raise their interest rates at will. They have escalated to levels that put Loan Sharks in prison a century ago. We have a bill regarding Medicare which makes it illegal for the government to negotiate with pharmaceuticals for lower prices on prescription medications, giving them an open door to prices they can charge. We have a group of elected officials passing laws that have taken away any regulations on corporations that may protect American people. In short, we have corporations calling the shots in our nation today.
At the same time we have seen our Constitution, and thus our democracy, stripped of any safeguards we the people once had. We have seen the power of the people stolen by those who were sent to represent us, but who have betrayed us. We have seen the power given to not even the three branches – Executive, Legislative, and Judicial – but to a single one, the Executive, thus making the individual in the Presidency a dictator. So, we have lost our democracy and now have a dictatorship.
With corporations controlling our economy and a single person controlling our government, how does this differ from a fascist dictatorship? They 2000 Presidential election even showed us that our vote has no bearing on who gets placed in office, but then we were told by the corporate media to “get over it.” We did, and we lost.
