The Four Business Gangs That Run America

[try2bfrugal]

http://www.theage.com.au/business/the-four-business-gangs-that-run-the-us-20121230-2c1e2.html

I found this to be a pretty good summary of how and why America is basically corporate run these days. It also explains why our health care costs the most but doesn't rank that high in terms of quality on a global scale.

[catherine]

I completely agree with this, and have believed it for years. At the risk of sounding like a rebel anarchist, I believe strongly that people need to snap out of the consumer hypnosis we're in and see that our power as the People has been usurped while we have become a sleeping giant sedated by trinkets and ignorance.

[pinkytoe]

I don't dare show this to dh because he talks about this all the time. I do believe it though. Yesterday, there was a locally produced newspaper article on Dept of Defense spending on pharmaceuticals. In the past 10 years, it has jumped something like 123% as billion dollar deals are struck between big Pharma and the military - more and more drugs for soldiers, depedendents and retirees. I sometimes wonder if all the anti-depressants taken must end up in our drinking water since so few people seem to care anymore about making it right. The masses seem content to consume and be entertained. And for those of us who question, it begins to feel like we are on the wrong planet.

[leslieann]

Wow. Rebel anarcist indeed. My contention has been that we have been seeing a shift in education over the last, oh, twenty years, to the point where critical thinking is no longer valued but good consumer behaviour IS. So it isn't just consumer hypnosis; we are no longer training the majority of our children to actually think logically and make decisions independently, considering various sources of information and assessing their relative credibility. We are teaching our kids skills to earn money to buy stuff. In fact, I heard last week a proposal to eliminate literature from the standard curriculum and replace it with technical manuals (admittedly, the source for this information was "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" a game show on NPR).

Anyway, the article is a grabber for me, a person who doesn't generally think in those terms, but is frightening...how does one change the tide?

[lucas]

I agree completely with this... the very narrow limits that are placed on political and social debate also serves to keep the USinto this poor education/consumer addiction feedback loop.. when the whole Obamacare row was going on, I was really struck by the way both commentators and politicians kept yelling 'he wants to make us like Canada/France/England etc', and noone in the Democrat camp dared to respond by saying 'ok, let's take a look at those countries'..it's as if comparing any US policy to that of another county will immediately land you with the 'unpatriotic' label (or even better, 'unAmerican)...the republicans succeeded in creating this perception that in London and Toronto there are queues of 19-year-old athletes demanding free heart transplants because they can get it for free.... absolute nonsense... the culture of 'the only things that matter are those you can buy' surely fuels this perspective that a price tag must be put on anything of value and it must be acquired by an independent individual... any society that doesn't consider equal universal access to quality education as a right is no society at all...

[Gregg]

I've also come to the conclusion that cirtical thinking skills are not taught as they used to be.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I go back and forth on whether it's just the rulers that are corrupted (that the rulers are corrupted is not something I have any doubt about - how they vote - just how they vote to take away all our civil liberties etc.), or whether even though the fish may rot from the head whether the whole fish of this country is rotted at this point.

It's probably a mistake to blame the people too much for the crimes of the ruling class (but when the people start celebrating either of our horrible choices for President last time I utterly despair). There's a layer of thick propaganda and rigged systems (lesser of two corporatist picked evils, jerrymandering, money in politics, etc.), but even maybe that is backed by naked force at the end of the day. Same as it ever was I guess. What if you have a protest movement? Well apparently there were snipers aimed at KILLING the leaders of the occupy movement. Yea it was a leaderless movement which makes this kind of laughable. Were the snipers government or just a kook group? Who knows, none do, many speculate, that info is blacked out, it's all speculation baby, since it is quite deliberately blacked out. Any speculation by necessity leaves you as a conspiracy theorist, the beauty of blacking it out. But where was the law enforcement investigating this terrorist plot if it was just some kind of non-govermental kook group bent on murder (murder that probably would qualify as *terrorism* due to it's political motive!)? At the least we have gross negligence here.

Thick thick layer of propaganda, backed by force, same as it ever was? Be afraid? Nah, laugh (some fool tried to kill the leaders of a leaderless movement!), fear is futile, don't be afraid, but question everything.

By the way, critical thinking and all, I did look at the original documents right now, before so hastly passing on the sniper stuff. It's there, but the documents are a @#$# mess, they don't read clean, far too much blacking out or something. I'll probably fiddle with browsers trying to get this stuff to read properly, but I think the problem may be redacting stuff and not my browser:
http://www.justiceonline.org/commentary/fbi-files-ows.html#documents

[try2bfrugal]

One major gang I would add to the article above is the prison system. The U.S. has 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prisoners. It is a growth industry -

http://www.propublica.org/article/by-the-numbers-the-u.s.s-growing-for-profit-detention-industry

Here is an article on incarceration rates by country -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

The U.S., as in health care costs, is an extreme outlier compared to other Westernized countries like Germany, France and Canada. The U.S. has 730 prisoners per 100,000 people. Germany has 83.

[try2bfrugal]

So why is the U.S. corporate run so much more so than other Westernized Democracies? Is it critical thinking skills? If it is critical thinking skills, then why are they worse in the U.S.?

What social actions, beside simple living and avoiding supporting corporations, would reverse this trend at higher levels?

[Gregg]

An interesting list try2bfrugal. I have to admit to being surprised at some of the countries on the low end of the list. Most of Africa, India, East Timor (Timor-Leste), Yemen, Pakistan... It would be interesting to know what impact simply reforming marijuana laws (nationally) would have on the US prison population.

[ApatheticNoMore]

So why is the U.S. corporate run so much more so than other Westernized Democracies?

So much more may be merely a matter of degree and perhaps not that great a degree, depending on one's perspective. The whole world bailed out the banks and yet where are the criminal prosecutions of all those involved in all the financial shenanigans leading up to the crisis? As for the oil complex, the U.S. is addicted to oil yea and many countries are better on climate change treaties, but Canada is currently allowing the expoitation of it's tar sands for oil, despite all environmental consequences to the whole world.


What social actions, beside simple living and avoiding supporting corporations, would reverse this trend at higher levels?

Actually that's a pretty powerful action, they can crush dissent if they want, but what are they going to do force you to buy stuff? (yea um ok that has some precident now I guess, and will happen naturally if there is a monopoly when you have no other choices for a needed service, but that is very far from the whole economy at this point).

What's another tactic? Start educating people. No I don't mean children (have to be very careful with them as they are so easily influenced). I mean adults you engage with. No don't start screaming politics at strangers 24/7 or become heck bent to convert by sheer yelling people who will never agree with you. It might be fun ocassionally, but I'm not sure it's very effective. What I mean is there are whole realms of information that barely gets in the mainstream media, so get it out there. NDAA passes at New Years last year with barely any corporate media attention and no real support from the base of *either* party. Plenty of people want to boycott Monsanto and also happen to garden but don't know that Monsanto owns various seed companies. Heck, even climate change was silenced in the last election. Stuff like that. Educate those around you.

[Rogar]

http://www.theage.com.au/business/the-four-business-gangs-that-run-the-us-20121230-2c1e2.html

I found this to be a pretty good summary of how and why America is basically corporate run these days. It also explains why our health care costs the most but doesn't rank that high in terms of quality on a global scale.

I thought the title of the article was a little extreme..."The Four Business Gangs that Run America".​ No doubt the businesses and government are inextricably entwined, but the degree upon which business runs government, or just has significant influence is probably an issue for debate.

It is too bad that Occupy Wall Street could not focus on specific issues like these. Instead, it was like, occupy everything. And now the efforts of the protests are mostly vague memories with a few small fires left burning.

[Gregg]

One thing to think about is that corporate America is by far the biggest beneficiary if a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff is reached. Any combination of band-aids and can kicking will keep the gravy train flowing where forced cuts could spell a pretty much immediate end to some lucrative programs. If Congress comes up with an 11th hour save I have to admit I will wonder which master it was they were serving.