Corporate Democracy is Systemically Corrupt

Facebook made $400 billion and paid no  Federal Income tax. “Big raises (for CEOs) continue as many companies are laying off employees (Poughkeepsie Journal 3/31/13).” When Congress defeated overwhelmingly popular background checks, it demonstrated that our system of Corporate

Democracy is systemically corrupt. Nelson DeMille’s  “Mayday,” though fiction, graphically illustrated this. The myth of the American dream of opportunity is no more.

Theodore Roosevelt reigned in corporate corruption, and cousin, Franklin Roosevelt convinced the rich to compromise, reacting to the economic collapse of the Great Depression. Then, the business and financial elite needed the purchasing power of the masses to make money. Not so today. They profit through speculation, for the most part exploitative rather than helpful for the common good.

Regulation has not worked. It is either evaded, weakened or undone by legislation from corporative influence. The system is incapable of reforming itself. Corporate executives are not per se involved in a diabolical plot. They are merely playing by the rules of high-level entrepreneurship, satisfying themselves and their shareholders. Thus, JP Morgan tries to outrival Goldman Sachs, at almost any expense.

The challenge is to stop the financial behemoths from setting the rules, keeping Super Capitalism from spilling over into Democracy. All else is frolic and detour. A tough task, but only a well-informed public with chutzpah can inaugurate change.

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

By Michael Kulla, Ph.D.,  Pleasant Valley, New York  (845) 635-1144