In my previous article, we saw how a tiny minority is capable of corrupting our democracy. 

How this corruption involves a three-pronged attack on government, business, and civil society. 

How they have effectively silenced all logical and legitimate protest, labelling it as  “absurd nonsense and ignorance.” How people fear challenging the establishment for the sake of their careers, despite knowing things are wrong. 

How they have hidden what they have done so nobody blames them, accepting the growth in economic and social inequality and environmental degradation as normal or the "inevitabilities of modern life." All grossly wrong and nothing more than blatant lies. 

In my first article, we looked at how they have been able to corrupt our democracy. In this article, we look at what they have corrupted.  In truth, they have corrupted every facet of the economy, but to simplify things, we will look at the five major components affected, not the minutiae of their vast corruption: that’s material enough for many books. 

1. ECONOMIC POLICY. 

Their first task or objective is to control the government's economic policy.

This enables them to control the broad framework of the economy. To answer critical issues like who the economy should serve. Should it serve society or markets? This, in turn, allows them to answer other critical questions, such as levels of taxation, regulations and the extent to which the government plays a role in supporting their citizens. 

A democratically responsible government would try to balance the needs of society and markets. The pendulum may swing either way, depending on current circumstances. However, there would be limits as to how far it swings and for how long, always returning to a point of equilibrium where both parties are treated equally.

As we do not have a democratically responsible government, but rather one that has been corrupted by the wealthy minority, they implement policies which serve the wealthy. They implement free market policies which favour markets exclusively at the expense of society and the environment. 

The idea behind free market economics is to:-

1)  Lower taxes, particularly on corporations and the rich.
2)  Have fewer business regulations and less oversight.
3)  Run small governments, privatising most of their services. 

The purported logic behind these ideas is that businesses will make greater profits and have more freedom to operate, which will grow the economy for all. 

Such hare-brained logic may work in Utopia, where everybody is perfect, but unfortunately, in the real world, this is nothing but gobbledygook stupidity. The only thing they got right is that businesses make more profit, but to assume this will lead to economic growth, which benefits all, has no foundation whatsoever. In fact, it has led to the growth of two undesirable facets of our economy, which directly hurt the majority - the Rentier Economy and Globalisation. 

So, free market economic policies on their own weaken the majority, let alone give rise to two other obnoxious phenomena harmful to the majority. We should be clear on why free markets are harmful to the majority as well as businesses. 

Businesses form the basic building blocks of our economy. They are run in accordance with Milton Friedman's “Shareholder Theory”, which clearly states the purpose of business is to serve shareholder (financial) interests exclusively. How profoundly ignorant is such a belief? It's as stupid as saying man needs only air to survive, ignoring all the other critical things needed. Businesses need more than just financial capital to survive. They need four primary capitals or resources. These are financial, human, natural and common capital. Common capital is the most overlooked because acknowledging it runs contrary to free market (neoliberal) dogma. It destroys their claims that low taxes, small government, and few regulations benefit the economy. 

Common capital is what the government invests on our behalf in common assets, such as infrastructure and services. We all use them, including business. Without these investments or limited investments, makes life much harder for you and me, as well as for business. The higher these investments, the easier everybody’s life becomes. The stronger our society and economy. This investment in common capital distinguishes developed from developing economies. Developing economies have low common capital investment, and life for citizens and businesses is much tougher. 

So, given this simple fact, how can lower taxes on the highest earners, fewer regulations, and smaller governments, all of which go towards destroying common capital, benefit anybody over the long term? They don’t. 

Free markets directly and adversely affect three of our four primary capitals, namely human, natural, and common capital. It’s a shameful disgrace. For this reason, free markets (aka economic apartheid or neo-feudalism) and their two offspring, the Rentier Economy (aka Bloodsucker Economy) and Globalisation (aka Gobbelisation,) gobbling up domestic manufacturing in favour of foreign manufacturers are collectively referred to as THE TRIAD OF EVIL. 

2. MEASUREMENT STANDARDS.

The next important thing for them to control is our measurement standards. 

What we measure is what we manage. What we don't measure, we don't manage. 

A democratically responsible government would measure and manage what is important to its citizens - their quality of life. 

A corrupted government serving the needs of the wealthy only focuses on financial capital. Our micro, or business measurement standard and macro, or economic measures, are based on financial measures alone. 

To say they are inappropriate and inadequate is wrong - they are highly misleading. 

Profits do not indicate a business’s well-being, nor are GDP figures an indication of a citizen's well-being. In fact, they are highly misleading. The economy has grown over the past few decades, yet the quality of life for the average person has been in rapid decline. 

Of course, changing our measurement standards to reflect the interests of all stakeholders would weaken the interests of financial capital and thus be rejected by the rich. 

However, a democratically responsible government needs these measures to hold businesses and themselves accountable for how they use precious resources. The rich are only interested in extracting optimum benefits for themselves, nothing else. Consequently, we are led by the nose through these meaningless measurement standards, which hide the horrible truth of serious damage to three of our four primary capitals - human, natural and common capital. 

3. BANKING SECTOR. 

Bankers used to be revered stalwarts of society. Honest, trustworthy doyens of society. Not anymore. Today, they epitomise the worst in society - greedy, selfish people above the law because of their wealth and influence. They commit crimes on a gigantic scale yet are not held to account. Petty criminals face more censure than they do. 

What has caused them to transition from good to bad so quickly? The corrupting influence of neoliberalism. The removal of regulations, restrictions and oversight has turned the good into the bad and ugly overnight. 

By manipulating banking rules and regulations, they have ensured capital flows easily, opening up great opportunities for them across the economy. Fewer regulations and oversight allow them to act more recklessly and dishonestly.

The banking sector is already the supremo in the renter economy, but further relaxation of regulations and the adverse effects of free market policies on the majority (i.e. a real decline in incomes and job security) has enabled them to create and exploit even more despicable opportunities, ensuring they vacuum up every crumb from the hard-pressed majority. 

Allowing capital to flow freely has been critically important to the wealthy in optimising globalisation opportunities. Without this financial liberalisation, globalisation would still be a dream for them, rather than the nightmare it is for the majority. 

4. INVESTMENT SECTOR. 

I recently wrote an article titled A bad investment culture just got worse. | by Adrian Mark Dore | Oct, 2023 | Medium. This article shows how the wealthy have changed the investment sector. How it has been corrupted to serve them and not the majority. It has been so badly corrupted it no longer resembles any of the fundamentals of investment.

Again, they have corrupted an entire sector of the economy to serve their needs rather than those of the majority, contrary to the dictates of democracy, just as they have corrupted the banking sector. 

5. DRIVING CONSUMERISM. 

We overconsume, living in a throwaway society. This is by design. We are encouraged and urged to consume as much as we can. We could live differently and comfortably, where we consume far less without adversely affecting our quality of life. It would be far more sustainable and less environmentally harmful. However, such an approach would mean the wealthy make far less profit from us, and that’s not part of their plan. 

Money and profit for the wealthy over sustainability, pollution, and environmental degradation are the choices made for us by the wealthy because that makes them the most money. And you thought you lived in a democracy where the majority decide what's best. I’m afraid not. 

They corrupt society through the media they own. They create a society of self-interest and overindulgence. More lies and deceit to mislead us and put us on a path of self-destruction so they can make an extra buck from us. Disgusting. 

In my next article in this series, I look at what we must do to reverse the harmful corruption inflicted upon us.

You may read other articles by Adrian Dore on Medium at

https://medium.com/@adrianmarkdore/