Pocketbook Liberation Or “We Mean Business”
By Hillary Kaye & Cary
Shulman
“The price of anything is
the amount of life you exchange for it.”-- Thoreau
Corporations rule the earth. Not
governments, not Presidents, not Prime Ministers, not the People. Corporations
have the wealth to buy elections, favorable legislation, court decisions, own
the media and much of the world’s resources. The Republicans and Democrats
have been completely co-opted and third parties aren’t even in the
running. Protests and demonstrations don’t have the desired effect. It
would seem we are powerless in the face of such a force. But where do
corporations get such immense power….? Profits. And where do they get
those profits? You and me. Us.
Nothing
could be more obvious than we would want to pay for the world that we desire. A
world of peace, social justice and a healthy environment. And yet every day we
pay for war, social injustice and environmental pollution. This has got to
stop!
Even if politicians don’t
seem to care about us, corporations are very aware of how important we are.
Image is the lifeblood of any corporation. They spend billions on PR to make us
feel good about them. Good enough not to realize that we aren’t just
buying a coke but that we are really investing our money to support war with war
mongering Presidents. But we have to look behind the familiar corporate logos,
catchy slogans and Madison Ave spin, and see the destructive reality that they
try to keep hidden.
The recent
election has focused attention on voting. And there’s quite a controversy
over whether our vote counts and even if it’s counted, at all. But we do
cast a vote every day, not just in November. In fact we cast many votes every
day. Every time we take a dollar bill, a five or a twenty out of our wallets and
spend it, we’re casting a vote for the kind of world we live in. And
unlike the votes in November, believe me, these votes are counted. Very
carefully counted by statisticians, accountants, Wall Street analysts, financial
advisors, and CEOs. Because these are the votes that really matter. Without
them, all the corporations in the world would just have to pack it in and go
home. So we really do have the vote, we really have the power to create the
world we want. It’s right there in our own
wallets.
Approximately 50 million
people voted for John Kerry … And we still ended up with Bush, war, social
injustice and the destruction of the environment. Now 50 million people is a lot
of people. You don’t think for a minute that if those 50 million people
stopped buying products from the corporations that supported Bush and these
policies, the whole thing wouldn’t turn around tomorrow? There’d be
frantic emergency meetings in boardrooms across the country. The people would
have spoken. As Bob Dylan said “money doesn’t talk, it
swears.” Believe me, the people would be swearing in a loud clear voice
that would be finally heard! They would know that “WE MEAN
BUSINESS.”
“Don’t
pray for peace and pay for war.”
Posted: Wed - December
1, 2004 at 04:41 PM