I guess I will be the one to stand up, strap a target on my back, and say this is OUR fault. It isn't the politician's and it isn't that bogeyman "Big Corporations" that we can all so easily rally around. We get what we ask for, and it is our responsbility to fix it. For instance:
Politicians cater to the big corporate money because we MAKE them. If we were willing to spend even a minimal amount of time learning about candidates' positions and voting records on our own, they would have to stand on their records alone. But we WANT to veg on the couch in front of the TV and learn about our leaders via 30 second spots during American Idol. We make it so expensive for politicians to reach us with their message that they have to round up an enormous amount of money to stand any chance of winning. We have survivorship bias in our sample of politicians because only those willing to go for that money can survive.
Big corporations are focused on profit because we mandate that they focus on profits, after all, that is where our retirement plans are invested and I want mine to be as valuable as possible. And as investors, if a corporation misses a quarterly profit increase we pummel the stock and string up the CEO. CEOs are turning over now much faster than at any previous point in history. They export jobs because we MAKE them do that to keep profits maxxed. Remember the days when you used to see the labels "Proudly Union Made", or "Proudly Made in the USA"? You don't see that much anymore do you? you know why? because no one cared including those with jobs at stake. When it came right down to it they would rather have 4 cheap color TVs made in Indonesia than 1 expensive one made in Indiana. Think about the last time you willing paid more for an item (or bought stock in a company) because it was union made, made in the US, eco-friendly, or Fair Trade certified. Those are all concepts we want others to get excited about, but for ourselves we want the most stuff for the least amount money.
Should we prevent corporations from being involved in the political process? when they have our retirement funds and all of our jobs at stake?
Corporations and politicians are not saints, but let's keep in mind that they are REACTING to the game as we have dictated it to them.
(even if you disagree with the rest of this post, you have to agree there is little that can be done to drastically change the system in the short run, so lets get over laying all the blame on these two bogeymen and focus on feasible ways to work on the issues)
Flame away . . .