DemocracyvCapitalism2-12-01pg1

Democracy vs. Capitalism: Is Capitalism winning?

Long has it been assumed, though not openly expressed, that democracy can control the greed that capitalism harnesses. It has been thought that democracy allows for the people to have their voices and thoughts heard and followed by their leaders. It has been theorized that the corruption of capitalism would be exposed in democracy and fought against. But what happens when the system becomes corrupt? Is it the fault of capitalism?

It must remain clear, democracy and capitalism are not one and the same. Democracy is a governmental system. Admittedly, America is a republic, but it is based on democratic principles and ideals. Americans often refer to America as a democracy and our leaders claim democracy around the world. The Cold War was democracy versus communism in the words of presidents, media and the international community. America claims to stand for democracy, and does in the eyes of the world. Democracy is the process that elects its leaders through the representation of its people. Even if it is to elect electors, it is still a reaction to the will and vote of the people. Capitalism is also a reaction to people. Capitalism is an economic system that moves wealth, creates wealth and maintains wealth based on the ingenuity of some and the will of the people to give their wealth to others for those goods, services and ideas. The two are seemingly compatible because they both rely on the people for their force and success. So why is there a problem?

Marx�s ideas of economic and governmental systems had one major failing: neither accounted for the concept of greed. In the economic sense, it was greed for wealth. In the governmental or political sense, it was greed for power. In both cases, it is also a greed for influence. Democracy, in America, was designed to check that greed in terms of government while capitalizing on it in terms of economic gain for its citizens. That is the purpose of having three branches of government that work to check each other. This way, no one branch could have complete control, become corrupt and dominant. Democracy assumes that if people in power become corrupt, either government �checks and balances� will deal with that corruption or the voters will vote the corrupt individuals out of office. Has it failed?

Bill Clinton gives the most recent illustration of the failure. Marc Rich, one of America�s 10 most wanted people by the FBI gets a pardon by Clinton on his last day as President. To the surprise of few, his wife has given about $1 million to the DNC, including $70,000 to Hillary Clinton�s campaign in NY, $10,000 to the Clinton Legal Defense Fund, and about $400,000 to the Clinton Library, among other donations. She also visited the White House about 100 times during the Clinton presidency. She hired Jack Quinn, the former White House counsel to help her husband�s case with the President. Quinn, obviously has ties to Clinton through the impeachment proceedings and other scandals of the Clinton White House. And the emails give it away with Clinton having to �convince� his staff to support the pardon, among other comments in them.

The 2000 election says a lot about our current political climate. Consider that the job of President of the United States pays under half a million dollars. Then realize that according to �official� numbers, George W. Bush raised $82,555,880 and Al Gore raised $46,784,770. Those were the numbers released by the Federal Election Commission. However, it was widely reported that both had either come close or passed $100,000,000 in this campaign. The difference may be in party spending and private spending for ads and trips that were not officially donated to the campaign. Several different groups ran ads for both candidates on television as �group x for candidate x�. Who were the main contributors?

The leading �soft money� contributors were:

The Millionaire�s Club: AT&T ($1.9million), Am Fed of State Cnty Muni Employees ($1.7 million), Communications Workers of America ($1.5 million), Phillip Morris ($1.1 million), Microsoft ($1.1 million), and SBC Communications ($1.0 million).

The Three Quarters of a Million Club: UPS ($940, 809), Citigroup ($935,945), Freddie Mac ($935,000), Dominion Resources ($859,378), American Financial Group ($845,000), Service Employees International 1199 NY ($830,250), Majority 2000 ($824,593), and Bristol Meyers-Squibb ($810,649).

The Half Million Dollar Club: Buttenweiser & Assoc. ($747,500), Anheuser-Busch ($742,106), Bell Atlantic ($723,036), Pfizer Inc. ($686,121), Williams & Bailey ($683,000), ARCO ($676,525), Sheet Metal Workers Union ($670,354), NRA ($664,650), Baltimore Orioles ($652,900), Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association ($626,120), Bell South ($618,317), Cintas Corporation ($595,000), Enron Corp. ($574,000), Federal Express ($564,828), Mirage Resorts ($563,621), Fannie Mae ($560,150), American Airlines ($540,511), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers ($536,000), and Dreamworks SGK ($525,000).

That totals 32 corporate donators donating $28,566,554 for an average of $892,704. When one realizes that businesses are in business to make money, it makes you wonder what justification those businesses would have to their shareholders to donate an average of almost $900,000, and a minimum of $500,000 to campaigns. What purpose could businesses have for that money? Is it just �good will� and �trying to do their part?� If that were true, wouldn�t their money do more good being donated to local communities? This is little more than buying influence. It only shows how little influence your $1,000 donation really has.

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