The Corporatocracy is the 1%

[marmar]

Published on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
The Corporatocracy is the 1%

by Carl Gibson


In October of 2003 Steve Jobs first learned that he had pancreatic cancer. His doctors and family members urged, even pleaded with him to have surgery, but he opted instead to try alternative and natural remedies. It was a decision he would later regret. America is faced with a similar dilemma.

Recently, an article by Llewellyn Rockwell, a former Ron Paul chief of staff, antagonized the federal government elite as the “1 percent” that’s wronged the other 99% of Americans. Rockwell eschews the “impoverishing…taxes, regimentation” of the state while encouraging the Occupy movement to leave the other 1 percent alone—CEOs and bankers— as they are “Some of the smartest, most innovative people in the country.”

Rockwell’s writing has some truth to it. The federal government is certainly complicit in the oppression of the 99%. And the people are rightly upset. Congressional approval is now in the single digits, which is the lowest in recorded history for CBS/New York Times pollsters. The Federal Reserve’s first audit showed trillions in secret bailouts to the same Wall Street banks foreclosing on our homes and laying off thousands, as well as trillions in bailouts to banks outside of the United States. And if that wasn’t enough, it appears that the Fed is letting Bank of America dump $74 trillion in derivatives into taxpayer-insured FDIC accounts. President Obama’s support for Occupy Wall Street seems hollow when such rampant greed and corruption is allowed to continue under the nose of our supposed regulators.

But antagonizing the state as the sole culprit for our grievances is disingenuous. The state enables the unrestrained greed of corporate and financial titans to push millions into poverty worldwide. Toothless agencies, staffed with former executives of the companies they’re supposed to be regulating, were complicit in the BP oil disaster by letting the companies write their own rules. Corporations are now breaking apart pieces of the Earth’s mantle to draw natural gas, free to pollute water supplies without fear of government regulation. President Obama’s re-election team just hired a senior adviser who formerly lobbied for TransCanada—the same company pushing the White House to approve their Keystone XL oil pipeline that would pillage the land for oil destined for other countries. Even Sen. Dick Durbin admits that banks "frankly own the place." Our government has become a subsidiary of industry. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/02

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. "Our government has become a subsidiary of industry"

I would say, "Our government has become a subsidiary of Wall Street."