Big time money, in the multi-millions and billions of dollars, is being held by a smaller and smaller percent of the population every year. While there are still people raising themselves from rags to riches, for most people… the American dream of being a very rich person is being trounced.
The late 1800s and early 1900s were the age of big monopolies in our country. The steel, oil and transportation industry were so large they could actually wag the government like it was their tail, just as a dog does. They ran everything and the government, being much smaller than it is today, had a hard time reigning in that power.
While most of the American people saw what those large conglomerations were doing to the country, it was difficult to wrest that power away. The Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890 began the ball rolling.
While monopolies had existed since colonial times, some of what had occurred was created by our own government. An example was the railroads having power because of what was given to them for free (land, right of ways, etc.) so they would build the rail system in the country.
Only a few years later as the energy and communications sectors came into being as we know it today, the government allowed monopolies to take over because no one could really supply what was needed without having domain over an entire sphere of business.
A good example was the Bell System that split up the country into separate pieces and ran a coordinated effort to put phones in every home possible. In the early 1980s however, the non-competition that Bell Telephone/ AT&T had fostered through the laws that allowed them to become what they were was changed as it was broken up into smaller chunks. The individual companies that were created (known then as “Baby Bells”) and AT&T took on different tasks. Basically the Baby Bells would handle local telephone service in the areas they covered and AT&T would handle long distance services and manufacturing of phone equipment.
The advent of large distribution of cellular phones and internet/televison services provided by the Baby Bells (although most of them don’t even have the Bell name in them anymore) has changed the market profoundly. However, some of the monopolistic rules that were used originally to form telephone companies still haunt competitors in many rural areas.
Concentration of wealth
At the same time the number of individuals with growing wealth has increased in the United States immensely since the breakup of the monopolies of the early part of the last century. More people have more money, and tycoons abound. However, big time money, in the mulit-millions and billions of dollars, is being held by a smaller and smaller percent of the population every year. While there are still people raising themselves from rags to riches, for most people, regardless of their educational level (but more so for those without a higher education of some sort) the American dream of being a very rich person is being trounced. Success stories of those that have done it are everywhere, because they are unique. Few journalists, however, look for or publish stories of those who have tried and tried to become wealthy and have failed time and time again. For the most part, the American people don’t want to hear about sincere failure, largely because in our hearts we know those exist on every street. We only seem to care about material success.
Excessive influence
But with that huge amount of money in fewer and fewer hands, comes a larger problem than just income disparity and the smashing of the American dream for the common citizen. It becomes a story of monopolizing the government, doing what JP Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt and others could not do 120 years ago.
While the rich have always had an unequal ability to influence what goes on, the reality is that the crush is becoming ever larger. Politicians, our elected officials at the federal and state levels, have more and more pressure on them to do what the rich want them to do.
And to continue that power over our government, those who want the influence will do anything to keep it. Large corporations (often controlled by the richest people) donate equally to candidates of both parties, knowing which ever person gets elected they will have influence. And while it has never been proven we can assume that the gerrymandering of representation districts for Congress has been influenced by this money.
While there have been a lot of suits and legislation over the years where corporations could work within the political framework of our country, the Citizens United decision in 2010 (along with a ruling in 1976 called Buckley vs Valeo) probably were the two that most disturb those that would like to see big money get out of influencing politicians because it denotes corporations as persons, allowing them to spend literally as much money as they want on political candidacy because they have the right to free speech. An earlier ruling (First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (1978)) also allows them to spend what they want on other kinds of elections such as referendums. ballot initiatives, etc.
Corporate control
Is the science fiction genre that has been popular for a long time of a corporation or corporations running the world upon us, controlling everything? Will they therefore abscond with our rights to the point where we become subjugated to the almighty dollar? Or is it already here? And as each day passes, does our right to elections that bring light and understanding of the common man’s plight, slip away?
I have no problem with someone being rich. I have no problem with people having huge amounts of money. I do have a problem when they use that influence to change our government, how it operates and the directions it takes to the detriment of the rest of the citizens of this country.
I think we have a choice to make in our nation. Do we want a democracy, that involves all the people, or do we want something that will remove the common person’s ability to control a government bought and paid for by the wealthy?
While some individuals who are extremely wealthy and corporations act in a benign way on the surface, the fact is no matter how many times they may express that they care about people, they still will always value the almighty dollar more. The empire that they may own will always be most important to them.
Is that what we want for our children and grandchildren?
The monopolization of our democracy
Richard Shaw