The
extent to to which capitalism has distorted the distribution of the
earth's resources is difficult to grasp, it has placed so much in the
hands of so few. When we talk of economies and we tend to think of
nation states, but the facts on the ground are different. Of the top
100 economies on the planet, 40 are corporations, the wealth of
certain corporations dwarf the economies of some nations. Another
little known fact is that less than 1% of corporations, mainly banks,
control the shares of more than 40% of all global businesses. When
it comes to who is big in this corporate world it is oil and gas, 7
out of the top 10 companies in the world are oil and gas. This
distortion of wealth also distorts the direction of technology and
development, the big money will control where that development will
go, they will drive it to increase and consolidate their wealth and
position of power. They will shape our world to their own advantage.
So
that brings us to the statement made by a certain Louis D. Brandeis,
a member of US Supreme Court, 1916 – 1934, “We may have
democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few,
but we cannot have both.”
It is long past the time to wake up to that
realisation, any talk of democracy while continuing with the present
system of capitalism is empty rhetoric, thoughts of fancy, or at
worst, just plain manipulation, hypocrisy and duplicity. The question
of how do we get more democracy, is the same question as how do we
get rid of capitalism. Any dancing round the edges about improving
democracy within capitalism is fantasising, it is impossible, there is no room in
capitalism for democracy, one is the antithesis of the other.
