Corporatism as the mode of government

[Robert_Sock]

The current political issue of big versus small government is really a moot point in the general scheme of things. The real issue is the power and extreme wealth of corporations. It really looks to me like we are going to become a society governed by corporatism.

The problem with corporatism has to do with moral values. But social psychologist can easily alter the vices of power and greed into humanitarian values involving societal wellbeing.

 

[4elise]

The current political issue of big versus small government is really a moot point in the general scheme of things. The real issue is the power and extreme wealth of corporations. It really looks to me like we are going to become a society governed by corporatism.

The problem with corporatism has to do with moral values. But social psychologist can easily alter the vices of power and greed into humanitarian values involving societal wellbeing.

Have you ever seen the movie Idiocracy? It is a bit theater absurd and profane but is set in the not too distant future when corporations have taken over - and people have become more and more stupid… to the point where they think the best thing to do is to water the crops with something like GatarAid - because it has ‘what plants crave’ - to the obvious result that all crops are dying -

So do you have a recommendation for individual action that can make a difference?

 

[tafan]

I too find a problem with giganticism among corporations. But I don’t see a corportism taking hold, ie large corporations trying to control our lives.

A very important thing to keep in mind, the larger the government, the larger the corporations. That is the general relation that normally holds true for several reasons. More and more regulation makes it harder to compete profitably with very large economies of scale. Government gets bigger and bigger, and interaction with the government (for example in tax preparation, lobbyists in order to influence government, legal personal to worry about regulatory compliance, etc) costs more and more; hard for the little company to make it work. Finally, as larger and larger portion of the economy becomes government spending, to compete for that portion of the economic pie, one has to be huge, as lowest cost and bidding nightmares on government contracts take hold.

Yes, we would be better off without so many giants out there. But large governments equate to large corporations.

 

[Robert_Sock]

Again, it’s our societal values that need to change, not our form of government per se. Corporations are simply in the best position to govern us.

 

[tafan]

In what ways do you feel corporations govern us?

 

[Robert_Sock]

In what ways do you feel corporations govern us?

I said that corporations are in the best position to govern us. To this end I think I can see where corporations can effectively govern us because of all the technology that they possess. It is technology that guides and directs us as a society. I envision technology as becoming capable of governing us in a multitude of ways, such as inducing positive, humanitarian values to our society. IT ALL COMES DOWN TO ALTERING THE VALUES OF POWER AND GREED IN OUR SOCIETY TO THAT OF GENUINE HUMANITARIAN VALUES.

 

[JonathonofOhio]

The current political issue of big versus small government is really a moot point in the general scheme of things. The real issue is the power and extreme wealth of corporations. It really looks to me like we are going to become a society governed by corporatism.

The problem with corporatism has to do with moral values. But social psychologist can easily alter the vices of power and greed into humanitarian values involving societal wellbeing.

You mean we are going to have a central banking system that is controlled and ran by corporations that use their power and influence to control the government via special interest groups that they sponsor and support, and have a limited 2-party system to give the illusion of choice when really there is none in the general elections? A system in which big corporations pay off politicians to do their bidding, spend millions on a candidate they choose, create a system in which only the wealthy really stand a chance of getting elected as president? A system in which these corporations receive bailouts in the form of tax money collected from the middle class if things don’t go their way, and a system in which they use the military solely as a way of making profits and building a corporate empire all over the world all the while they are convincing the people they are fighting a War on Terror?

Wow what a bleak ‘future’.

 

[Captain_America]

. . . at one time the OP’s assertion might have been debated.

Today, in 2012, no one seriously doubts this. Look at where our money goes, our attention goes, our power goes!

The big problem is that there is little concern for the intrinsic value of people in corporations; merely their instrumental value to production.