- Advertisement -
The same dynamic holds with wealth, which tends to concentrate until one corporation has it all.
Famously, when this country was still a province of European wealth, corporations sent murderous bounty hunters to enforce it's contracts until we established a government of the people to regulate corporate wealth in the form of feudal power: Kings, nobles, etc. Still, the majority of cattle ranches were owned by European money.
When the corporation was given (by Supreme Court decree reinterpreting the fourteenth amendment to exclude women and ex-slaves) the protections of individual rights, corporations again began to monopolize and dominate affairs. Simply the effect of wealth is enough to control the acquisition of wealth.
Teddy Roosevelt tried to bust the trusts, but the wealthy backers of the GOP evicted T.R. from his position.
So we have a continual see-sawing of wealth controlling people and people controlling wealth. Eventually, greed gets so bad it loses public support and the wealthy have to rename themselves as populists, as the whigs did in the 1800's. Since WWII, corporate wealth has dominated our gov't. Go back to the 1920's, when Standard Oil protected it's monopoly on fuel by the Prohibition of Alcohol, to the thirties, when hemp was prohibited-- both alcohol and hemp oil are substitute fuels.
By busting unions and equating them with Communism, corporations have managed to get in control of wealth and people again. Yet, once again, the bottom line is short-sighted, limiting innovation and becoming increasingly calcified to the point of dysfunctionality and the loss of common sense.
Now we have embarked on a "war" that will keep the military-industrial complex in control for generations. Any opposition is unpatriotic.
Yet this is no war. It is simply an illegal invasion, just like Saddam's "naked aggression, which will not stand"-- Bush I.
Wealth has once again become untenable and dysfunctional in the management of government. Although Crisis, Conflict, and Catastrophe benefit corporate wealth and the Defense and Oil industries, they don't benefit the people themselves, who are the ultimate creators of wealth.
People, not banks, give money value. People, not corporations, are the ultimate criterion of prosperity. Yet wealth will always, unregulated, tend to overpower people.
Thus governments and unions are created to protect the people from the enslavement of wealth by means of legal regulation.
Unregulated capitalism creates slaves, just like unregulated fishing empties the oceans. Unregulated, wealth fouls it's own nest and destroys itself, by polluting the environment and destroying it's own functionality in human society.
Therefore, look to Croesus' legendary wealth for the lesson of enduring values. Human existence and all life on Earth is not furthered by macho men with powerful weapons and lots of money, but by mothers and grandmothers who create life quietly and inexorably. Neither Nature nor Time is on the side of those who accrue great wealth. The teachings of Jesus, ironically, confirm the worst sins of modern self-styled Christians. Once again, the people must control wealth's domination of their government and their lives.
Comments
Click Here to View Comments or Join the Conversation