This animated short exposes how the unmitigated power of the US corporations is bolstered by divide and conquer tactics wielded to distract from the harm they do to society and the environment - and generate enormous profits for the wealthy few. The video sheds light on how narratives of scarcity ("There aren't enough jobs for everyone," "We can't afford to pay a living wage," etc.) shield the public from seeing just how wide these corporate profit margins really are.
Video Transcript:
Imagine a society where all families can thrive and have time to enjoy life.
A good wage, and affordable safe housing, access to healthcare and quality education. Clean air, soil, and water.
But why do we have to imagine this society?
What is preventing us from accessing what we all need?
Some tell us there isn’t enough to go around so we have to fight over jobs and treat others’ success as our loss.
Or want us to believe that it’s the family down the street who might look different or come from a different place.
But this racism is a distraction.
Here’s the truth: It is our laws that put money and corporations over people.
This allows corporations and the top 1% to amass tremendous wealth and power at the expense of families, working people and the environment.
For example, giant oil corporations have known for decades that burning fossil fuels harms the climate, yet they’ve continued to pollute.
They do this to add to their profits while peoples' wages are depressed and the earth suffers.
From our homes and jobs to the apps we use, corporations rely on us and public goods like tax breaks and roads for their business.
Why can’t we rely on corporations?
Corporations have lost touch with us—the public —and what’s good for us while our ability to hold them responsible has been weakened.
It wasn’t always this way. Early corporations that violated the public good could be held responsible and lose their “corporate charter” -- their license to exist.
But back then the “public good” was meant only for property-owning white men. As soon as African Americans, women, and renters won some access to government, corporations lobbied and won court cases that weakened the government’s ability to hold them accountable.
Now corporations have “perpetual life.” Courts decided that they’re people, allowing them to influence elections and bankroll politicians.
Corporations are not people. It is our government’s responsibility to ensure and enforce that corporations serve us.
When we call on government to reign in corporate power, the political elites defending corporate interests stir up racism and bias, and encourage us to obsess about false threats.
This strategy of divide and conquer prevents broadly popular policies like a $15 minimum wage, renewable energy, immigration reform, free college and transforming policing.
We owe it to ourselves and future generations to challenge laws that uphold corporate control and greed and make our government responsible to all of us and to our planet.
It's not 'we the corporations,' it's 'we the people'.
We need to take back our power by coming together — all of us — to take government and change the rules so all families can thrive.
