The real issues here more involve simply when the economy allows much activity that is problematic to happen, creating powerful interests vested in continuing it.
It's true whether it's a massive defense industry that causes more excessive defense spending - even if that causes unnecessary wars to justify it - or the finance industry with many billions relying on bad activities, as with our system that has bloated the industry to go from 10-15% of the economy's profits to 40%.
We need to face the fact that a weakness of democracy is that an industry with hundreds of billions to gain by bad policy is a lot more able to lobby for its interests than the citizens. And when those interests pay for a massive propaganda industry to befuddle the public with attacks the people trying to do the right thing, it works.
We can rightly criticize the Soviet Union for its really bad economic policies.
But we can be rightly criticized for our own really bad policies when it comes to corporate corruption of our system, as well, we are broken also.
We didn't think so, because other advantages propped us up as wealthier, but look at our debt now, and global competition, the trends since Reagan.
Our primary advantage in the world now is military strength, and that's a pretty lousy thing to have to use for our benefit.
Things like allowing unlimited corporate donations into the 527's in elections is exactly what we did not need.
Goldman Sachs and Wall Street already seem to largely run our government's Treasury Department under both parties - I remember the story of a Bush administration insider saying he heard Bush on the phone to his Treasury Secretary yelling that he's the President, 'you have to tell me what you're doing'.
Rome continued to have the trappings of a Senate after the Caesars had become dictators. We fall into a similar trap with our own corporate corruption, where the trappings are there, presented by the corporate media every day, but the policies are corrupt and the people are the ones who will pay the price to protect the powerful - inevitably weakening the US while its international class of elites' loyalty lies with their class counterparts around the world.
We can do better - there were large investigations into corruption such as WWII suppliers, hundreds of convictions from the Savings and Loan scandal, for example.
Sorry, brainwashed Libertarians, but government representing the public interest is the only counter that could work to the corrupt concentrated private powers.
There are plans to gut the very scope of government so that it can't play that role, protecting the private interests, if we don't fix some of the corruption.
Save234
It's true whether it's a massive defense industry that causes more excessive defense spending - even if that causes unnecessary wars to justify it - or the finance industry with many billions relying on bad activities, as with our system that has bloated the industry to go from 10-15% of the economy's profits to 40%.
We need to face the fact that a weakness of democracy is that an industry with hundreds of billions to gain by bad policy is a lot more able to lobby for its interests than the citizens. And when those interests pay for a massive propaganda industry to befuddle the public with attacks the people trying to do the right thing, it works.
We can rightly criticize the Soviet Union for its really bad economic policies.
But we can be rightly criticized for our own really bad policies when it comes to corporate corruption of our system, as well, we are broken also.
We didn't think so, because other advantages propped us up as wealthier, but look at our debt now, and global competition, the trends since Reagan.
Our primary advantage in the world now is military strength, and that's a pretty lousy thing to have to use for our benefit.
Things like allowing unlimited corporate donations into the 527's in elections is exactly what we did not need.
Goldman Sachs and Wall Street already seem to largely run our government's Treasury Department under both parties - I remember the story of a Bush administration insider saying he heard Bush on the phone to his Treasury Secretary yelling that he's the President, 'you have to tell me what you're doing'.
Rome continued to have the trappings of a Senate after the Caesars had become dictators. We fall into a similar trap with our own corporate corruption, where the trappings are there, presented by the corporate media every day, but the policies are corrupt and the people are the ones who will pay the price to protect the powerful - inevitably weakening the US while its international class of elites' loyalty lies with their class counterparts around the world.
We can do better - there were large investigations into corruption such as WWII suppliers, hundreds of convictions from the Savings and Loan scandal, for example.
Sorry, brainwashed Libertarians, but government representing the public interest is the only counter that could work to the corrupt concentrated private powers.
There are plans to gut the very scope of government so that it can't play that role, protecting the private interests, if we don't fix some of the corruption.
Save234
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