Is America just a resource that Corporations farm for their own growth globally?

Question

Is everything from Government down to the poorest individual American just grist for the corporate mill?

Has American 'society' no value or purpose aside from that which it's directed to have from the board-rooms of America?

Answer 1

When people conflate "corporatism" with "capitalism" - which is what has happened - the result is as you describe.

There was an excellent documentary a few years ago, "The Corporation", taken from the book of the same name. It made clear how the evolution of our legal constructs after adoption of the 14th Amendment has promulgated this phenomenon.

Someone I know, a college student, had that book open one day, and I asked her what she thought. She replied that, because it challenged the supremacy of large corporations over individuals in our legal system, it was anti-American - specifically, she said, "I don't like this book, because I love America." I was too dumbfounded to say back to her right then, "If you love America, why do you want to give it up to corporations?"

There's been a popular misconstruing of Coolidge's statement to the effect that the business of America is business, and it's infected the popular political psyche, to our national detriment.

Answer 2

Good to see somebody else gets it. What strikes me is the assumption of some people that what's good for corporations is good for Americans. As if the privatization of Iraqi oil fields, for example, somehow benefits Americans. It doesn't. It benefits oil company investors. Period.
Jobs go to the countries with the lowest valued currency relative to the dollar. The elite can buy those products for less money. No decisions are made for the good of the American people. All decisions must benefit the wealthy. Occasionally, to protect their system from mob rule, they'll throw us a bone. The newest bone is healthcare. By the time it passes, and they finish watering it down so it doesn't adversely affect the rich, it won't be worth passing.

Answer 3

Evidently, corporate America requires a large pool of unemployed technically proficient workers from which to draw upon to keep those CEO and Board of Directors' salaries on par with God's

Answer 4

That truly seems to be the way things are today in the US. Obviously the corporations do not care for the "least" of us, and they certainly trample the environment--and fight like heck against anything that might protect the environment. I just don't understand it! We only live to be about 80 years old (if we're lucky and have good genes AND good health care)----how much money does anyone need in that time??? So, there is obviously something else at work here.
It must be about competition and "game playing". And I, for one, do not like someone using me and mine as chess pieces!!

Answer 5

water is an incredible style of the time owned by potential of the government even though it does not stop you from hiring a properly drilling team to drill some hundred ft to your guy or woman water as a remember of actuality in case you reside interior the desolate tract who controls the water controls the folk yet different than that its no longer that great a deal BTW with each and all the main charity agencies artwork in those third international aspects is thier important deal is giving out sparkling water

Answer 6

Maybe? To me, the value and purpose of a society is defined as much by the individuals who live within it as it is by an outside, big-picture view. By that outside view, it's possible you're right. But as long as individuals assign value and purpose to their lives outside of that corporate entity--the importance of a teacher helping a child to read, the importance of taking care of our family and loving each other, the importance of a nurse helping a patient to heal--then we've also created a meaning beyond any external system in which we may or may not be trapped.

Answer 7

You are 100% correct. If it weren't for the american consumer buying their goods/services, then the corporations would have no opportunity for growth. Like it or not, "evil" corporations have shaped our economy way more than gov't ever has. You went to work (I assume you work) in your car which was developed and marketed by corporations. Or if you use public transport, then that bus/train was made by a corporation. Your bicycle was developed by corporations. So you walked? Then your shoes were developed by a corporation.

The PC you use is a product of an evil corporation. The very browser you are using is a product of corporate america.

So, as any of you reading this who are enraged by my "pro corporate" stance realize this as you click the mouse to give me a thumbs down...that mouse was developed by a greedy corporation (dell, HP, microsoft, etc) looking to make a profit from YOU, the consumer.

Answer 8

it sure feels like it

corporations were formed to do the work that government couldn't or shouldn't but it started going crazy when corporations were given the same rights as people
in the late 1800's and its all been down hill since

Answer 9

That's an extremely pessimistic way of looking at an extremely complicated economic picture. In many ways, America and the American people are one of the biggest beneficiaries of global corporate growth - many times, the international markets are working to prop up our economy despite our politician's seemingly best efforts to destroy it.

Remember though, economics means "the study of limited resources and unlimited human needs."

Answer 10

The situation could very well evolve to that.

Capitalism is indeed a dynamic system that selects for fitness to the environment.

What's not always appreciated is, the thing being selected as most fit could just as easily be a gut parasite as anything else.