An Evolution of American Capitalism

For 227 years, the United States of America has claimed to be a Democracy. And for these many years, it has also been a center for Capitalism, defending by law and blood. For decades, these two words, Democracy and Capitalism, have seemed to represent the same thing. As though a free market and laissez fair were synonymous with freedom and liberty. As if the Constitution and Declaration of Independence professed our love for these two systems. Alas, these are lies...Capitalism is not the economic system of a Democracy. In fact, the two cannot even coexist.

Our current society is broken into two parts, a Public sector and a private one. The bosses of the former are elected into office and those of the latter rise to power through ambition, a trait frowned upon by constituents if their elected officeholder were to posses it. See, for two centuries, Americans thought they were living in a Democracy because, as they saw it, these two parts were separate. But, they were wrong. They were misled by propaganda-based education system. (But, that's another discussion for another day!)

Anyway, as the boundaries between the two sectors began to dissolve, and as the Private sector began to grow,  big businesses seemed to overpower the elected officials. Don't believe me? Take a look at ever single Secretary of the Treasury under a Democrat since Jimmy Carter. For some reason they all seemed to be Conservatives with a previous career in Wall Street. Consider Rober Rubin who had wished to sustain tax cuts whilst his advisors suggested stimulus for infrastructure or Timothy Geithner, a failed ambitious pluralist, who failed to pay his own taxes in 2003 and 2004.

See, the reason why these types of men are sitting on these posts and having to deal with sums of millions of taxpayer dollars is simple. Big business has gone bizzerk and there is no one to control it. Ronald Reagan was a complete political novice. An actor, Reagan came onto the political scene after he resigned his post as the President of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and was elected into office as California's 33rd Governor. This step is obviously one rocketed by his sub-par Hollywood career, one that would help in his run for President. So, what's my point? The man is a message board, just like any other American actor. If you pay him enough, the only thing better than money is power, he'll say anything. He'll be anything. The theory: Reagan's contributors, who remain a mystery, were the same businesses who benefited for his "trickle-down" bullshit. STILL don't believe me? Barack Obama's so-called failure in office could be attributed to the same system. [LINK]

This influence big business, and thus the wealthy, have over our political system is power. Power is the ability for one party to tell another what to do. The wealthy, basically, have the power to tell the less "fortunate" -or as they like to call us, peasants - want to do. If the politics of the modern ballot doesn't satisfy you, consider the media. These guys are the catalysts for the Conservative changes Wall St. wants. For instance, in 2004, Bush's approval rating went up from 44% to 55% over a mere 2 weeks. That is, the two weeks in which news stations constantly ran anti-Kerry flip-flopping sound bites. And its not always Republican...how do you think Obama won over Palin's bullshit "bulldog" campaign? CNN's daily vindication to the "first black president" might have done the trick.

Yes, this adds to the plutocratic tendencies of a capitalist society because these people, who own these media corporations, are none other than the same class of people who run Wall St. The upper-class wealthy. Media is supposed to report information by which the voters can fairly make a judgement. They're not supposed to say "yes" or "no"--they're supposed to give us full sentences.

And this growing plutocracy isn't the end of it all. Consider the huge dip in voting and incidental spike in political apathy. In a study I held recently, I found most people do not care for sort of politics but those that are either Presidential or those that involve money. This would explain the reason why voter turnouts are so much higher in times of war and economic depression as well as those in presidential elections.

The capitalist system has spurred the Cable Media and with it a spurt in national news over local. People are more aware of what's going on in the Federal government than the local ones and so they vote for in National elections. As far as people voting in times of war and economic depression, its obvious. The capitalist system has made us greedy. We care about our money more than anything else.

However here's the real reason - the reason I believe - why people simply refuse to vote. Why bother? The government, the public sector, is so small, so far from us, the people. We like to connect ourselves with the exploding private sector. After all, who're the ones giving us the fuel to "prosper" in this economic system? We feel that the public sector doesn't matter anymore. The private sector is the one that provides us with jobs, with money, and quite frankly happiness.

But how many of us are actually happy? How many of us go to work in the private sector with smiles on our faces? Think about it: they are the ones to dictate our pay, to dictate our working conditions, to dictate our employment. Sure, the government has placed laws to limit "bad" conditions, but who says we can have good ones? The private sector bosses are dictators. Who votes them out of office...nobody. Where's the democracy now?

See, capitalists like to say hard-workers are rewarded in their system. But at the end of the day, there will always be a working class, after all - thanks to the good nature of competition- we all can't be our own bosses.