Corporatism vs. America

America used to be the land where the people ruled and where governement represented the people. At least that was the idea behind its founding.

The truth now is that through less regulation and more political "buyoffs", America is now the land where corporate interests rule and government represents corporate interests. The battle of Republican and Democrat is largely for show, it's TV fodder. Corporations own both parties.

The proof is in the pudding. The stimulus package, that propped up corporations "too big to fail" under the premise that failure to do so would plunge the nation into chaos as disruptive as the Great Depression, came with almost no restrictions or accountability to prevent a similar emergency again. In other words, it was a carte blance payoff to corporations at the expense of the taxpayers. In fact, this recession (plus the stimulus) is the best thing big corporate America could have asked for. They are able to shed jobs, put downward pressure on wages, raise productivity, erase dirty assets and raise profits and corporate suite pay. What's not to like?

While the chaos of a complete financial collapse would indeed have been chaotic and created an upheaval across almost all sectors. It would have been the necessary "correction" that would have accomplished what no stimulus package could.

Corporate America's stranglehood on our government would have been broken because many of these companies would have failed and gone extinct. This would have allowed government to once again represent the people. Without corporate payoffs, representatives would be dependent on their constituents for funds and thus accountable to them.

It would also have opened opportunities for new businesses to replace these big behemoths with more responsive, nimble and sound practices. This is where the stimulus money could have been spent to foster the growth of these replacement businesses. It would also have fostered immediate "new" industries such as green energy to relieve our oil dependence quicker, new infrastructure businesses, new communication businesses, a new nimble auto industry that can truly compete globally, a new built from the ground up insurance industry, and a new financial sector making money the old fashioned way (loans and savings to finance the new businesses) instead of esoteric and risky financial "tools" and mortgages would have been restructured for long term stability and income for the new banks.

The upheaval would have been tremendous. Unemployment would have soared. Money would have dried up for a while (again, this is where the stimulus would've performed better), and the nation would have certainly suffered. But...

The much needed correction would have leveled the playing field for business and allowed innovation to take hold (small companies are inherently more innovative than large corporations) to build up the future of American business. The stimulus money would have gone to the restructuring of American business rather than maintaining the status quo. The road would be long and hard but it would be faster given that the govt would intervene immediately (unlike during the Great Depression) and it would not have been compounded by ecological disaster (as in the Great Depression). In other words, the Depression that could've been would not have been as bad as the Great Depression.

A clean slate is easier to build upon than the current wretched slate and we would have been alot better off in the long run. Instead the playing field for business has not been leveled, none of these "new" businesses has made any inroads, money is not loosening up, credit costs are soaring, housing mortgages are still the knife at our throats, corporate protections are still in place, and accountability is still elusive. As it is, our lumbering corporations maintain their stranglehold on our government and foreign corporations (with their own state support) are better positioned to take advantage of the new global environment than American business is (think BRIC) and American consumers have no leverage.

Yes, corporatism won again despite being the ones who took us to the brink and they're making a lot of money, the rest of us aren't.