Jubbergun wrote:
Politicians and bureaucrats who are easily bought are the other half.
Bribery basically never happens in this country. This has been so since the passage of the 17th Amendment. If you believe otherwise, show me proof that it does occur with any frequency.
The mechanisms of control are the media and campaign finance, systems which most politicians loathe because they get absolutely nothing out of them (quite the contrary, they infringe on the personal freedom of politicians and make their jobs unnecessarily difficult and stressful).
Proof being that politicians that are not wealthy outside politics do not become fabulously wealthy in politics other than by writing books, and that politicians on both sides of the aisle routinely see their careers and personal reputations destroyed by the media for no reason. Condit, Clinton, Gore, Gingrich, Cain, the list goes on.
The media in turn is controlled by monied interests who have absolutely no accountability to anything or anyone other than...those with the money...who form powerful blocs aimed at misinforming people to get them to vote against their interests. Proof being the existence of media like Forbes and Fox which spew blatant lies with absolutely no common theme other than that people should think, say and do what will make the rich richer. What else is their incentive for lying?
The bit about "it's both" is a common propaganda tactic. The Romans used it too, fwiw: a common phrase in pro-wealthy bullshit from the time was "harmony of the orders" which really meant "don't tell us we're bad when we are" or other rhetorical means of throwing red paint at anyone who said it like it was, portraying their views as extreme.
Splitting the difference to afford the appearance of being reasonable or critical when in reality such claims are totally devoid of any facts or logic at all is just another form of mass manipulation aimed at getting people to vote against their interests. Proof being the aforementioned lack of facts and logic in such claims; there's nothing there but the propaganda.
Further proof: The political system in this country has never been perfect but it has gotten steadily worse as corps have gotten bigger and more powerful and they have become stronger than the political system.
Government was far more effective 50-100 years ago when political decisions were made by politicians and the government wasn't accountable to corporations. Proof of that in turn being how the government was able to implement programs to build infrastructure (e.g., WPA/TVA, Arpanet, laws requiring corps to make telephone and rail coverage universal) and implement bold laws (e.g., Superfund, Clean Air Act) to deal with health and safety issues (e.g., polio/smallpox extermination) without being hamstrung every step of the way.
50-100 years ago no one would have accepted the intolerable situation that exists with simple things like public restrooms or the water supply or telecommunications rates. Problems that exist because corps want them to and that politicians get nothing out of.
You can't say "it's both" if the problem only cropped up when one of the two entered the scene.
