How can we stop the economic freight train of corporate
America from leaving Joe USA in the dust? There are few non-violent means
left for an individual to have an impact upon what happens in a global economic
community, but that does not mean all hope is lost.
First of all, vote! The fact that no one cared about the 1994 congressional elections has allowed Big Business to pack our legislature with politicians who are more concerned with corporate interests than the public welfare.
Second, try to support local business and smaller companies wherever possible. This is increasingly difficult in an economy that is centered around supercorporations, but any effort to distribute money to other entities will keep competition alive.
Third, and perhaps most difficult and important, is change from within. Holding a corporate job empowers an individual to effect change upon the powers that be. Financial security is fleeting anyway -- any corporate employee has either power over economic dealings or privileged information about unethical practices. At this point, influence can be used subversively or blatantly. The Internet is a good means for distributing information about profit-oriented morality overwhelming the good of the many. Don't sit idly by while the common man is sold out for the pocketbooks of the few. Change from the inside is the likeliest way to peacefully resolve our problems.
It's taken until 1995 for the American government and media to finally acknowledge that we have entered into the Information Age. The Reagan-Bush practice of ignoring the impact of this transition -- blaming it instead on Communism and the lazy American underclass -- has been taken up again by the Contract on America. Politicians quibble over morality while ignoring the fact that we are a generation in massive economic transition. Few people realize that the depression of the early 1930's was caused by automation and consolidation of wealth. The same thing is happening in America today. We must take action! Our options for the 21st Century narrow with every corporate merger.
