How Corporations Became so Powerful in 6 Minutes

We live in a democracy right? Well kind of. Learn how corporations became so powerful and why they became so interconnected with our government undermining our democratic system.

Music Credits:
Soul Chef – Blind Man See

Script:

Go to any city, any town, any rest stop in America and you’re bound to find the same old shopping centers with the same stores and the same gas stations and the same fast food as any other city. How did just a few companies gain monopoly over the entire country? You know which companies I’m talking about – the Coca Cola’s, the Shell’s, the Comcasts, you name it.

First a little bit of background about what a corporation is. The word corporation comes from the Latin word corpus which means body of people. In fact in ancient Roman law, corporate entities were recognized and even given protection under the law. Similarly today, by definition a corporation is simply a group of people who have been authorized by law to act as a single legal entity. And while most of the time we use the word corporate negatively, corporations are not innately bad. They can be bad or good just like people. However, over the past 100 years corporations have gained certain legal rights that have allowed them to gain more and more power. Again – some may use their power responsibly for good, while others recklessly for bad. Think Google vs. Exxon-Mobile.

Corporations today are super powerful for a number of reasons.

First Corporations are allowed to create Political Action Committees or PACs for short, which are basically organizations that pool money from members and donate those funds to campaign for or against candidates, ballot initiatives or legislation. For example AT&T donated nearly $3 million dollars during the 2016 campaign cycle on funding the campaigns of possible representatives they believed would put out legislation in AT&Ts best interest.

Second corporations tend to spend a lot of money on lobbying in Washington in the hopes of influencing politicians on a particular issue. For example the oil company Exxon-Mobile has spent over $200 million dollars alone over the past 20 years on lobbying. Just in 2008 the company spent over $29 million dollars in an effort to defeat legislation that addressed climate change.

Not only do corporations donate millions of dollars to the politicians they know will act in their best interest, or spend hundreds of millions of dollars on expert influencers to try and get those politicians to sign or block legislation that will help or hurt their companies, but they also employ many “revolvers” or people who were at one time government employees that now work for corporations – strengthening the connection between corporations and government further. Of the 29 registered lobbyists that work for Exxon-Mobile, 22 of them have at one time been government employees. You get the point. Of course Exxon is just one example out of many – I don’t know why I’m ragging on Exxon, but I am – if you happen to be the CEO please don’t come after me, I’m just using you as an example. Anyways the point is corporations and the government is tightly wound up within each other.

So how did this happen?

Before the late 1800s, corporations were required to be public service organizations and have a stated public purpose. In other words they were a sort of gift from a group of people to serve the public good. They were tightly controlled and very limited due to widespread public opposition. In fact a common misconception is that the Boston Tea Party was a protest between the American Revolutionaries and the King of England, but rather it was a protest by the Americans against the monopolization of the tea market by the East India Company.

[isaiahfreeman]

It’s funny how Google was used as the example of good use of power.

[charliechuckleberry]

The corporations have the power to censor public opinion in favor of their agendas. They are even controlling who goes homeless. At some point, we will all be like slaves to the corporations. Be obedient slaves, or suffer the consequences.

[GlitchedxD]

This is a video everyone here in the US need to not only watch, but *understand*.

Great job.

[GeorgWilde]

The critical error was in the mixing of corporations with the "public good". Thus corporation suddenly found itself at the center of political conflicts. This gave corporation a huge incentive to appear as if the corporation is on the side of the solution of the conflict, not the problem. They necessarily have to mold the legislation.

[roodlespoodles]

Amazing that in a video called "How Corporations Became so Powerful in 6 Minutes" the narrator has to apologize to Exxon Mobile.

[injusticeanywherethreatens]

My only problem with this video is that you didnt SOURCE the heck outta everything. We need the source material to prove that what we're talking of is correct.

[PS]

Corporate America sucks and is depressing.

[adrianomattia]

Note how the only problems are due to the collaboration between government and corporations and not to the nature of a corporation itself. What a company can do is to offer you a product that you are free to buy. It's when they get in bad with government that problems then follow.

[loriehand]

Your video provides a distinct view point of corporate power. A few slight edits might make it more widely recognized by teachers and used to help explain the relationship between business and government.

[crystalparker]

Corporations, like government, need checks and balances:

1. Unions to represent the workers.
2. Consumer protection agencies to protect consumers.
3. Chambers of commerce to represent businesses.

The problem is that the average person doesn't educate them self until we are in a crisis and they don't participate in their own governance. Corporations aren't bad, unless they aren't regulated. You don't leave a kid alone with a bag of candy and expect him/her not to eat it all.

We are approaching a time in our history that no one needs to work more than 20-30 hours a week. The other hours should be devoted to study of government, business, etc. Mindless entertainment has made the masses stupid.

[TJ-vlff]

Large corporations should be nationalised after they reach a certain market finish line, then broken up into smaller companies and privatised back to the middle class.

[georgewitmore]

Corporate greed will be the downfall of the US.

[jamesrichey]

I don't think the Lincoln quote is accurate, but good presentation on how corporations have been allowed to fester in society. I believe the only future alternative we have to provide justice and equality is for people to create cooperative corporations that can overtake the traditional corporate model. That's my take on it. Thanks for the video.

[razielgrey]

Great video! Very informative you made the learning process quick and painless. Please keep up the outstanding job!

[BillyBasd]

Corporations run this county now, as immortal overlords

[cfalcon]

It’s not “how can we limit corporations from interacting with government” but “how can we limit government influence on the economy.” Government is the issue, it has to be smaller

[dannyqw]

are there any links to source material you used in this video?

[joebenham]

what does the cartoon at the end have to do with the possible answer for limiting the power of corporations?

[jsmariani]

Only Americans living off world don't know we live in a PLUTOcracy.

[FreeTheDonbas]

Corporations don't innovate anything, institutions funded by tax dollars in the public sector do all the innovating, the private sector just uses those innovations to sell to tax payers who already funded their creation. The I-phone is a good example of this.