The Dictatorship of Corporations
by Thilo Bode, 2018, a reading summary of his new book
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/09/17/18817573.php
Why do the majority of politicians so often make decisions against the public interest and in favor of industry? A new quality of lobbyism arose on account of the dramatically stronger market- and financial power of companies.
I sound the alarm. The power relations in our society are shifting endangering democracy, the market economy, our self-determination, and our freedom. “A great setback…
Wall Street won; normal persons are losers” admitted the head of the CFBB.
Translator’s Note:
The world isn’t running after CocaCola, rock-n-roll and financial products as in the pre-2008 days. The unipolar days have given way to the multi-polar days. Where is the discussion of Plan B? Are we headed back to the 11th century and to corporate feudalism?
Myriad full-time and part-time jobs are possible with digital or Internat capitalism. Civil society must be enlivened to reverse the trend to plutocracy and disempowerment.
Reduced working hours lead to better long-term health and more time sovereignty. Shriveling the financial sector and expanding the public sector should be lessons from the 2008 meltdown. Redistribution and regulation are vital in a world where infinite growth is impossible and the state must represent the public interest!
$18 trillion was infused in “too-big-to-fail” banks in the 2008 financial meltdown. In the first eight months of 2018, corporations spent more than $460 billion buying back their own stock (cf. The Real World Economic Review). The lack of affordable housing represents a market failure. A non-profit housing sector would be an alternative to market failure and state complicity. Owners of capital are not the only ones with enforceable rights.
more at www.citizen.org, www.onthecommons.org, www.therealnews.com, www.politicalcartoons.com, and www.grin.com
http://www.openculture.com
www.truth-out.org
