We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, February 3, 2017

It’s Time We Talked About Our Owners

Click here to access article by "Don Quijones" (he resides in Spain & Mexico) posted on Wolf Street.

Sometimes it takes a people centuries to wake up. This English expat woke up when Black Rock, a private equity firm, purchased a large minority stock in Spain's telecom giant Telefónica. 

The author gives one an idea of the concentration of wealth (and power) in monster financial corporations that is inevitable in the system of capitalism, and how a tiny class of people called capitalists have managed to work around laws prohibiting monopolies by purchasing sufficient stocks to give them controlling ownership in companies that are in direct competition with each other. 

Yet he holds onto his delusion about the legitimacy of the system with the hope that Donald Trump can do something about a new "gilded age"--as if we weren't already in one.
Whether Trump’s team – filled with billionaires, Goldman Sachs alumni, and financiers – or other national governments will be inclined (or even able) to take such action is debatable. If they don’t, the concentration of ownership within national and global industries is set to grow, setting the stage for a new gilded age that promises to be even more insidious than the last one, since it will be global in scope and will almost certainly be facilitated by the international network of central banks.
Yes, all we need to do is sign a petition telling our government to do something about this, or elect people to Congress or the presidency like Trump who will reform the system. If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.