The Rising Challenge of Corporate Control of Our Lives

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The real breakthrough for the United States was a radical campaign finance reform bill--the result of possibly the most dramatic citizen protest ever held. Two million people descended on Washington, D.C., surrounded the Capitol, and refused to leave until Congress passed a sweeping campaign reform bill that prohibited individual political contributions larger than $100, barred corporate political involvement of any kind, provided public funding for election campaigns, and required media using the public airwaves to provide free broadcast time for all qualified candidates. This set the stage for a string of legislative victories ending corporate welfare, revoking special corporate rights and privileges, breaking up concentrations of corporate power, guaranteeing every person the right to a means of livelihood, giving workers control over their pension funds, and implementing reforms to help workers obtain ownership stakes in the organizations on which their livelihoods depend. Labor unions began to organize worker and community buyouts, in part with workers' pension funds.

At the same time, a deep cultural shift was taking place. Voluntary simplicity was in; conspicuous consumption was out. People realized that advertisers were manipulating their values and self-images so that they would feel compelled to devote their energies to earning money in order to buy expensive merchandise that gave them no real satisfaction. It is as if society acquired a collective immunity to advertising. Many people turned off their televisions and became more mindful consumers, buying only what they really needed, seeking good value, and giving preference to goods and services provided by local, independent businesses. Now, most people find that they need to work only 20 to 25 hours a week to meet their financial needs. The rest of the time, they devote themselves to things that give them real satisfaction, such as gardening, family, and community service.

As people recognized that most advertising is socially pernicious, they passed legislation to place strict limits on the advertising expenditures that corporations are allowed to deduct as business expenses. The pollution of both private and public spaces with advertising has largely been eliminated.

Nearly all businesses are now human scale, which in practical terms means that they have no more than 500 workers each, and nearly all are owned by persons who have an immediate nonfinancial stake in them--employees, customers, suppliers, or members of the communities in which the businesses are located. The giant corporations that sparked Seattle 1999 have gone the way of the dinosaurs and smallpox.

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