With the ongoing consolidation of corporate power continuing without an end in sight, it seems to me that we're heading (if we're not already there) toward a society that is actually more socialist than capitalist. It has been a rallying cry from the political right that a "strong central government" or "government control"--their overly simplistic definition of socialism--is detrimental. But substitute "corporation" for "government" and we have the same basic overall effect: a source of immense power that is dictatorial and untouchable. What we are doing is actually worse because for corporate power to be stronger or equal to democratically based government institutions creates the illusion that capitalism is working as advertised.
Consider that corporations now put serious restrictions on employees' behavior at levels that are dictatorial--on and off the job; have workers sign papers for everything from non-compete agreements (not at all capitalist) to keeping rights to all of their creative output--again, on and off the job; can give their top tier people money at levels incredibly higher than everyone else--exactly like old-style communist class systems where the privileged were part of a elite group called the Nomenclatura; support efforts to restrict voting--the old communist parties did it by picking candidates for approval (often with no opposition), where we now do it with unlimited corporate money and legal maneuvers to stop people from voting at all; and the intricate spying networks used by Eastern Bloc countries we used to criticize are nothing compared to what the U.S. is doing to its own citizens now.
Except for the names, we are becoming no different that what we claim to despise.
Consider that corporations now put serious restrictions on employees' behavior at levels that are dictatorial--on and off the job; have workers sign papers for everything from non-compete agreements (not at all capitalist) to keeping rights to all of their creative output--again, on and off the job; can give their top tier people money at levels incredibly higher than everyone else--exactly like old-style communist class systems where the privileged were part of a elite group called the Nomenclatura; support efforts to restrict voting--the old communist parties did it by picking candidates for approval (often with no opposition), where we now do it with unlimited corporate money and legal maneuvers to stop people from voting at all; and the intricate spying networks used by Eastern Bloc countries we used to criticize are nothing compared to what the U.S. is doing to its own citizens now.
Except for the names, we are becoming no different that what we claim to despise.
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