Chris Hedges says the move from “managed capitalism” to “unfettered capitalism” over the last four to six decades – accomplished with the help of government deregulation – has refashioned America as a “corporate state run by and on behalf of corporations rather than citizens.”
Hedges is no garden-variety prophet. Pulitzer Prize-winner.
“Our manufacturing base has been destroyed. Tens of millions of Americans live in real or near poverty. Our infrastructure is collapsing. We have massive deficits that we can never repay.
And we have a permanent war economy that eats up “half our discretionary spending.”
How do we react to all this? We shop, watch TV, shop some more, watch a bit more TV.
And, for the most part, we love it.
“What is so mendacious and pernicious about this is that until these institutions collapsed, all they talked about is the market and unfettered capitalism. And when, because of their own folly, greed, and mismanagement, it collapsed, they are raiding the Treasury.
“We’ve become a socialist nation – but socialism for corporations.“