Voice in the Crowd, 740 words
Voice in the Crowd
By Pete Chaney
IPS Features
The
Political-Business Complex
The most prophetic comment made by Dwight
Eisenhower when he was leaving the White House is his warning to America to
beware of the military-industrial complex.
The military is trained for war, to protect the country
against real or imagined enemies. A
soldier is at his zenith in war. And
that’s when the promotions and prominence come. There will always be some who advocate a preemptive strike.
There are always some ready to go to battle.
Gen. George Patton was the example of the warrior, thrusting for combat
Industry thrives on money. Wartime is profitable. In
recent memory, a lot of men and women lost their lives in Vietnam.
A lot of companies got rich. A
dollar bill has no morality. It
carries no blood stains forward, no memory.
Now there is another danger, and our elected officials
can’t help. They are part of it.
The danger lies in the political-big business complex.
Cost of winning office has become so high that a
candidate must rely on contributions from the moneymen.
Now, the victorious official can say repeatedly how he’s not indebted
to those who gave him big bucks. But
he knows he will have to go back to them again with is collection plate held out
if he wants to run again and stay in office.
A poor man doesn’t stand a chance of being elected.
Each year the cost of campaigns rises to staggering proportions.
The rich man can almost buy an office now, stifling competition with
money spent of advertising, staff and contact workers.
A hundred years ago Washington went on an anti-trust
campaign, breaking up the monopolies that suffocated competition.
John D. Rockefeller was a prime target with his Standard Oil taking
control of the oil business.
More recently, the federal government had stringent
rules on monopolies. Newspapers,
radio and TV stations were prohibited from killing competitors by owning all the
media in a market. There was a
mileage distant they had to maintain in their properties.
AT&T and other industries were broken up to foster freer trade.
Our current political leadership has let the trusts and
monopolies gradually come back together. Residents
of Chattanooga, TN, have seen it with Ma Bell uniting to form a telephone giant.
Banks have been allowed to buy out smaller ones, cut payroll and close
branches for less customer service and a heavier bottom line, more profit to the
stockholders. The public suffered
but the rich got richer.
Oil companies killed the multitude of independent mom
and pop service stations where you had your windshield cleaned and could find a
mechanic. Oil companies have been
allowed to merge and buy out competing gas companies. The full service stations became convenience stores charging
higher prices than the local grocer, but being easier and faster.
While federal prosecutors focused on Bill Gates, they
permitted the merger of mega companies like Ted Turner’s networks, Warner and
AOL. More competition gone.
An execution of newspaper competition came with the
purchase of the Chattanooga Free by the Arkansas publishers.
First agenda was to refuse printing facilities for the Chattanooga Times,
which had been printed by the Free Press in friendly competition giving readers
a choice of opinions, taste and a variety of styles.
Obviously, the Arkansas group wanted the Times even worse than they
wanted the Free Press, but that was the maneuver.
A lot of good reporters and people lost their jobs with the death of the
morning Times in the merger with one paper going under both names.
The result was a bland publication with no character.
Chattanooga lost.
In the last mayoral election, the victor spent well over
half a million dollars to lead the polls. No
question of his qualifications. But
it would have seemed more democratic if he had won without spending big bucks.
What does the future hold? No help is in sight from the candidates and elected
officials. They can’t exist
without the dollar river from deep pockets.
And on a wider scale America seems headed toward control
of everything by a few. In our
lifetime, we may see business and money in the hands of a few companies which
set prices and determine what services people have in the tradition of “The
Public be Damned.”
Maybe some Teddy Roosevelt will one day appear on the
scene. But don’t put any money on
it. The banks won’t lend it to
you.
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