“Don’t you
think you are too down on capitalism,” one of my readers asked me. “It
can’t be all bad, can it?”
If you
look at my villains — a cadre of burghers, merchants, and corrupted ministers
who cruelly amass arable lands and every source of wealth they can get their
hands on — he seems to have a point. As The Old Deltan Thurgit puts it:
“The Merchant Adventurers, as they call
themselves, have always been interested in the way we construct our salt pans
to catch the tides and in the way we arrange drainage ditches and moveable dams
to evaporate finer crystals. Wasn’t only our salt they coveted – they rent our
pans to us and hold back all of the profit. They stole our inventions as well.
They used our sluices and canals to drain the reedlands for farming until everything
living has perished. There are no reeds, no birds, no otter, no frogs, no
turtles, no fish—not until three days march north. First they stole our ancient
wisdom, then our salt, and finally, the land itself.” Infinite Games: The Battle for the
Black Fen.
If you take “free trade” in terms of its
original meaning, which was the practice of illegal smuggling by New Forest
outlaws in Medieval England, I’m against it. Their purpose was to import and
sell goods while avoiding duties and taxation. It’s this
kind of freebooting capitalism without regard for the greater good that makes
me antsy. I’m in good company, too. The Pilgrim Colony was financed by London
businessmen who established a joint stock company to profit from the Northern Virginia
cod fishing grounds. The Pilgrims didn’t like the despotic demands of their
sponsors, and tried to establish a more democratic contract.Adam Smith, inventor of the term “free market,” was concerned that if manufacturers weren’t subject to regulation they would undermine society. He believed that economics were social forces subject to law.
Then there were our
founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in particular, who
were concerned that if corporations were left to their own devices
they might destroy the new democracy. Here’s Thomas Jefferson on the subject:
“We must crush in its birth the aristocracy of
our moneyed corporations, which dare already to bid defiance to the laws of our
country.”
And, later, Lincoln:
“I see in the near
future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the
safety of my country…corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption
in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to
prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth
is aggregated in a few hands…”
In the early modern economy I invent for The Marshlander and Infinite Games Series my portrayal of the dangers of untrammeled capitalism do not mean that I’m giving up on
capitalism altogether. My heroes carry on a complex and thriving system of
trade in both coins and kind. Rookery folk cultivate flax to sell in Twist,
Dunlin produces oats and barley for the Nidden market, the Tapestry House
maintains a lucrative and far flung trade in weavings, and the Fisher folk ship
their catch for sale in Brent. My issue is
not with the process of buying and
selling but with how it is done in
terms of its impact on community.
It’s
just the same today when corporations and the senators and representatives they
have bought try to override the good of the nation. Al Gore, for example, deplores the way American democracy is being gutted:
“Unfortunately, however,
the U.S. no longer has a well-functioning self-government. To use a phrase
common in the computer software industry, American democracy has been hacked.
The United States Congress, the avatar of the democratically elected national
legislatures in the modern world, is now incapable of passing laws without
permission from the corporate lobbies and other special interests that control
their campaign finances” to the extent that “Some political scientists have
asserted that the influence of corporations on modern governance is now almost
analogous to the influence of the medieval church during the era of feudalism.”
(104, 125)
Their
motivation is the same as it always was: plain old-fashioned greed. The other
night I saw Paul Solmon interviewing Dacher Keltner on tv. Keltner described
thirty studies on thousands of people, all demonstrating that wealthy people
are more likely than folks with more moderate incomes to cheat, to speed
dangerously by pedestrians, to lie during negotiations, to attribute success to
their own talent, and see generosity as for suckers. When they get together in
cadres they can cause irreparable damage.
These form huge economic forces, monsters whose tentacles of influence are so strong and so widespread that we can’t imagine how smaller folk like us can rise up to combat
them. Just keep in mind those intrepid Hobbits, Frodo
and Samwise, triumphing over what seemed an overwhelmingly powerful enemy.
Invented worlds tell us about things we need to know; they also show us how to persevere. We can certainly take heart, too, from
the excellent and historic company of Adam Smith, Ben Franklin, Thomas
Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, every one of them convinced that corporations
need to be controlled for American democracy to survive.
If we believe in democracy of, by and for the people, we need to make ourselves part of it.
If we believe in democracy of, by and for the people, we need to make ourselves part of it.
Ø Work
to repeal Citizen’s United, the 2010 Supreme Court decision which accorded
constitutional rights to corporations. Springing from purely grass roots
movement, sixteen states have called for an amendment to overturn Citizen’s
United. To get the facts in Michigan click Michigan GOP Serfdom Under
Citizens United, and Beyond; sign
the petition on Tell Congress: Only people
are people. | CREDO Action; write/visit
the office hours of/ inform or support your local congressperson. (In SE
Michigan go to End Citizens United | Peters for Michigan)
Ø Mail in your proxy ballots. If you hold stock in a company you
have a right to vote at its meetings, and if you read their proxy material you
will find shareholder resolutions that you can support.
Ø Consume Wisely. The ideal
American citizen in a corporation plutocracy is a passive, impressionable
consumer. Think before you buy from a business that is degrading the
environment or undermining the community. For example, boycott clothing made in
sweatshops and tell the stores where you are not purchasing it about your
action. Go to Responsible Shopper: Guide
to Promoting a Responsible Economy with Company Profiles, Green Living Tips,
and Campaigns, or to Green America: Boycotts: Economic action to stop
corporate irresponsibility
Ø Al Gore thinks that the best long term ways to keep corporations
from polluting the environment are to insist on Cap and Trade policies, and
support subsidies for the development
of renewable energy.
Ø Please add a comment if you know of other ways to protect
constitutional democracy from overreaching corporations.
Citations
Al Gore, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, p. 104, 125
Pal Salmon interviewing Dacher Keltner on the PBS Newshour, June 21, 2013.
