A long free-verse poem about after corporations control our government. |
The year 2028 ushers in another corporation-bought government – Presidency, Congress, and even the Supreme Court. Corporations have bought the government and run it through their stooges for twelve years now, the result of unregulated spending of unlimited hundreds of millions of corporate dollars each election to sway the electorate. Corporate America is far removed from the democratic America of our youth. The privatization of functions previously performed by the government itself is nearing completion, and corporations are literally raking in windfall profits. Of course, the people are not as well-served as before, but, as long as corporations are prospering, who cares about the common people? First, the corporations’ henchmen broke the unions, resulting in jobs paying less, offering no benefits, as well as many jobs becoming part-time. This was deemed to be great; it kept workers weak, scared, and happy to have whatever job they could scrounge. Then, the corporations had their front men privatize the public schools, making students attend for-profit charter schools. Government vouchers pay for most of the cost for the poorer- performing charter schools and allow millionaires and billionaires to get taxpayer dollars to send their children to the better-class charter schools. Corporations and millionaires/billionaires are quite happy with this new system. Medicare/Medicaid is now run through private insurance companies, which appreciate all the extra billions of dollars funneled their way, and who really cares if the common people find their government voucher inadequate to provide for their medical costs. It’s better for the poor, unproductive people to die early anyway, just as long as the corporations and elite rich are happy with the new system. Likewise, Social Security has been turned over to private investment firms to manage with their fees, their never-ending fees. All prisons are now corporation-run; who would have guessed they would cost the taxpayer twice as much to manage as when government-run? There is almost nothing done by the government anymore; corporations make untold profits doing these functions now. Putting mercenary soldiers in place of a civilian military was a stroke of genius, as was replacing civilian police agencies with corporate-controlled policemen. Now corporations have brute strength in case of any trouble-making citizens. National security has much improved ever since the Brown Shirts, as the corporate national police agency is called, was given the authority to stop anyone anyplace anytime to demand to inspect their papers and carry them off to jail if they found their papers lacking. Isn’t better national security wonderful? This is a new America where corporations are unregulated and the elite rich pay no taxes. The middle class has been squeezed out of existence and the working class lives barely above the poverty line. Young Americans no longer dream big of things like getting a college education or owning a house. Those things are reserved for the elite rich who deserve them. Yes, indeed, this new Corporate America is something special! America now puts all its peers, the other third-world countries, to shame. And to think this all started with the elections back in 2010, after which the subjugation and fleecing of the common people-taxpayers began. Recall the battle cry of “No new taxes on the millionaires/billionaires!” How did the American people let this happen? Please check out my ten books: http://www.amazon.com/Jr.-Harry-E.-Gilleland/e/B004SVLY02/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 |