We live on the verge of an intended plutocracy. Money moves to swing elections; it tries to command slience; it seeks to secure votes. However, this great strength is its own critical weakness. Read on. . .
As a long term progressive with a diversity of interests, I have repeatedly been amazed that my fellow liberals (as we were once called) seemed to understand so little about economics. Here I am not talking about the ivory tower theorizing from academics who never seem to be able to predict the future or explain the past. This is the original "gang who couldn't shoot straight" and very few of them seem to be well founded in reality. No, the economics I refer to here is a more nuts-and-bolts, street economics which include all our personal interactions with jobs, money, goods, services, purchases, and the like. Each of us have a small part to play in this game, but the aggregate is gigantic.
All businesses, from the corner shop to the largest conglomerate, have but one simple goal, or rather, compulsion. They must make a profit. If they can't, they have only a few choices. They can attempt to make their products more attractive, or they can pull out. The important point here is that their actions are predictable and, to a certain extent, controlable.
The effort to defund Rush Limbaugh has achieved some remarkable results. Thousands of advertisers have pulled off his show, and his employer is thinking carefully about their contract with him. He may remain, a mouthy shell, for some time, but his wings have been clipped. A concerted effort by many individuals has maintained the pressure, not on Limbaugh directly, but on Clear Channel's bottom line. They are being pushed to that decision point. We shall see what the final result will be, but it looks good so far.
We are in a time when the American middle class is being decimated. Along with this decrease of buying power, the businesses which catered to the middle class are suffering loss of profits. Think of it this way, those of us with even a little bit of cash get to vote with it. We can withhold our purchases from companies whose labor relations or political tinkering we find obnoxious, and support those whose actions and philosophies we approve. With times as they are, this gives us tremendous leverage.
How many of you are still going into Wallmart or Hobby Lobby? Is your money still in a Wall Street bank instead of a credit union? How many of your daily activities indirectly support the Koch brothers? Do you know which of the businesses you trade with have enlightened vs. exploitive labor practices?
Why are we so busy putting money into the pockets of those who only use it to bankrupt and impoverish us? We have powerful options here, but we are scarcely using them yet. Alone we don't amount to much, but unified, we can create winners and loosers, remaking the American business scene. The big shots have wrecked our economy, it is up to us to remake it to our own liking.
You got game?