Corporatocracy is a system in economics and politics where corporations control the government. In this system, companies use their money to control how the law is governed. This system usually describes situations on a small scale, like a section of a country used to mine minerals or natural resources, however, in many ways, is a direct opposition to a democracy.
Being a country where capitalism is the motto we follow, we elect our leaders to ensure that the lines are not crossed between corporate entities and state. The American way of life is meant for any person, no matter how little privilege they were born into, to be able to become almost any type of person they want to in life. To support this, we have elected officials whose primary purpose is to be the proxy for our collective goals. Local governments as well as federal classes of governments have a primary purpose of representing our collective goals. Each of the 3 branches of government (Executive, Judicial, Legislative) have a primary mission to be our eyes, ears and voices when they fight for rules and regulations for us to live by. If a person, not from America asks any American how the country works, this is how we would explain it.
We would, however, be liars.
Remember last year when Georgia Lawmakers Punished Delta for ending discounts for the NRA? Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, of Georgia, went directly to his handy dandy twitter and threatened the commercial air plane giant with the removal of a newly approved tax exemptions. It took less than two weeks to strip Delta of this provision. Did this threat come after consultation from the citizens of GA? It is just a guess, but Delta made their changes on a Saturday, the threats were pushed out the following Monday, and before the next Saturday, the provision was removed. This is not enough time to gauge the public for understanding, but it is time to call the National Rifle Association (NRA), who donated over 2.5 million to the government in the recent years. In short, private company 1 decided private company 2 was bad for their image and stops discounts the discounts to that company. Company 2 leverages previous payoffs to the government to punish the company 1.
By Miguel Angel Sanz
This is just one of many schemes where companies lobby our lawmakers to get their agenda’s accomplished. The biggest lobbying entity is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who does around twice as much lobbying financially as any other company according to The Hill. Even today, during the arguments on healthcare and how important it is for everyone to receive medical care, there isn’t much movement towards making this happen. Is it a coincidence that 3 of the top 10 lobbying industries are “Insurance”, “Pharmaceutical/Health”, and “Hospital/Nursing Home Care”?
In truth, the ideals in which America was built to embrace is broken. IF the normal, every day citizen can get through voter suppression similar to this, they get the opportunity to elect an official (if their voting polls haven’t been hacked) to represent the ideals they believe in. However, because of lobbying, the average citizen does not have a voice. There are over 15,000 lobbyist on the federal level and just to establish how popular lobbying is, over 80% of congress members become lobbyist for firms after they retire from congress. When a citizen elects a representative, it is more often than not, they elect a person who makes additional income from companies to pay them to swing votes.
by Parker Johnson
The threat to the American way of life is not Socialism, it is not Communism, it is not Dictatorship, nor is it the threat of monarchy. The allowance of lobbying is the threat to the American way of life. Who governs the country? Is it the government? Is it individual families like The Sackler Family, or The Koch Brothers?, or countries who pay as corporations to swing votes like AIPAC.
As each voting class passes, the corporations get stronger. Which brings me back to the first word. Corporatocracy. Are we one? Capitalism is supposedly the way of life in America, but with the increased money being spent towards lobbying, we are not far from being ruled by the highest bidder.
– Bryan Adams
The Distraction Network
