Beware the Corporate Takeover of Democracy

With the billionaire owners of giant corporations now taking over media and key government advisory positions, we will be seeing a flood of articles extolling their “wisdom” and condemning government regulators. This is dangerous news for “We the People.”

The only purpose of a capitalist corporation is to make money for its owners — not to benefit workers, customers, or the rest of us. Great wealth leads billionaires to believe they are superior human beings, and their actions should not be challenged or regulated by the government.

As a retired commercial banker, I sincerely appreciate the innovation and benefits of a capitalist economy. There is no better system for growth and prosperity. However, I also understand the detriments to “We the People” of unfettered capitalism. That is why monopolies were outlawed for 135 years until now. Giant corporations have brought us air and water pollution, non-livable wages, health care crises, industrial accidents, mass layoffs, plant closings, obscene executive salaries, price fixing, sale of personal information, stock market crashes, the 2008 economic collapse, and now, the rise of misinformation through their control of media.

Thanks to government regulation, many of the side effects of billionaires and their corporations have been illegal. Will this continue now that they are prominent in the incoming administration?

The danger to us is clear. Big tech, banking, Wall Street, and large retail corporations are hostile to us. One chart I follow is produced by the Economic Policy Institute. It shows that until the late 1970s, productivity and worker wages grew in tandem. As companies prospered, so did the workers who made it possible. Beginning in the 1980s, however, it shows productivity continuing to rise while wage growth tanked.

Capitalists hated the government policies that facilitated this joint public and private success, although the regulations originated in response to their prior bad behavior. With the 1981 election of Reagan, they finally found a henchman to begin the erosion of these regulations.  

From there on, there was a deliberate drip, drip, drip of pro-capitalist propaganda, which culminated with the 1999 repeal of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act. This revocation crippled government oversight of monopolies and deregulated banks so that investment houses like Goldman Sachs could be designated a “bank” and benefit accordingly.  That led to “banks” gambling with our deposits, creating “securities” of our home mortgages and crashing our economy in 2008, resulting in the closure of over 400 banks and widespread home foreclosures.

I was working for the FDIC at this time and witnessed this. The miracle of the time was the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which was formed in that 1933 Act, was able to refund all the deposits held in those 400+ failed banks. It is frightening that the capitalists behind Project 2025 want to eliminate this remarkable agency responsible for protecting our deposits from corporate malfeasance; and many other agencies that protect us.

Please understand that oligarchs and egomaniacs like Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg do not have our best interests at heart. They loathe being regulated and taxed to provide living wages, health care, retirement plans, affordable housing, public education, good roads, clean air, and water. They are buying our politicians in a lust for profit and power. They and their multiple companies will profit greatly from privatizing government services such as Social Security and the Post Office. We will not benefit at all. We must be vigilant in opposing the corporate takeover of our democracy. We need regulated capitalism, not an oligarchy. But there are more of us than them. We do not have the money for marketing specialists and attorneys, but we have the vote. I hope you are registered and will vote in your own interest, not the interest of oligarchs.

Dee Maitland is a retired commercial banker and past employee of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.