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Warren Beatty Speech The media loses interest. In the fall of '88, the New York Times ran 50 stories on the homeless, 5 of them on the front page. In '98, with no fewer homeless, it ran 10 pieces in the same period, none of them on the front page. Without hearing liberal Democrats, you won't hear about these unrepresented people. You'll hear about the unprecedented prosperity of globalization. Why? Because these unrepresented people make no campaign contributions. 96% of the people in America make no campaign contributions. Every penny of financing for the selection of every candidate for every public office in America from dog catcher to President is supplied by 4% of the people. They're mainly rich and they are represented. The $50,000,000.00 raised so far to select Governor Bush as the Republican nominee has come from three-one-hundredths of 1% of the people. That's why less than half of the people vote. They feel they have nothing to do with the process of selecting the candidates, and they're right. The candidates who are elected for public service aren't financed by public money. They're selected by private money. From people who usually want some kind of return on their investment. The primary cancer in
this sick system, the big money in politics, has so metastasized
into every area of government that we can't afford any longer to
ignore that the life of the patient -- American Democracy -- is
in mortal danger of dying on the table. Getting the money to win makes decent politicians do indecent things. But in fact, billion dollar subsidies and tax breaks, the pork barrel and corporate welfare, are only the smaller tumors. There are bigger ones. Our taxpayers are bailing out thieves in Mexico, Russia, Indonesia and other countries and at the same time bailing out major American financial houses who refuse to face the consequences of their bad investments overseas. Our government is reacting to this crisis by crisis when we should be helping to construct a new set of international ground rules to curb speculation and financial abuse. But our major financial houses want the freedom to move their money anywhere they please and to be as free of rules and risk as they can. The genius of America is the successful harnessing of the dynamic creativity of the private sector for the public good. No sensible person wants to dampen that. But our government is susceptible to a corporate economic globalization that is not free trade but corporate managed trade. And the global economy is not working yet for most people. But Pat Buchanan is wrong. We can't build a wall or turn our back on it. We have to work with it. The problem in this new economy is the undue influence these institutions and corporations have over government actions. They set the rules. Others aren't invited to the table. What we are in danger of experiencing is a slow motion coup d'etat of big money's interests over the public interest. So the global rules, written into trade agreements like NAFTA and enforced by institutions like the World Trade Organization, protect things like patents and intellectual property rights but not labor rights, profits but not people, investments but not the environment. We know the results -- growth, increasing trade, some development, some people making lots of money. But 475 billionaires have as much wealth as half the people on earth. We have the sweatshop again. Child labor. Slave labor. Destruction of forests, fish, water and air. And so far we haven't heard a word of requirements on labor and environment and product safety in the agreement being negotiated over Chinese admission to the World Trade Organization. Of course our stocks have gone up. But we're making the world safe for globalization rather than making globalization safe for the world. |
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This site was last changed November 28, 2001. It was created on March 20, 1997. © Janette Rainwater 1997-2001 All rights reserved. Unauthorized use of any of the material contained herein is strictly prohibited. |
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