Institutional Pathology

We might wonder how such self-destructive injustice could happen in a world governed by democratically elected governments. The answer is simple and alarming. Our world is not governed by democratically elected governments. It is ruled by global financial institutions in the service of financial speculators who exchange trillions of dollars daily in search of instant unearned profits to increase the fortunes — and the power— of the richest people on the planet. They bring down governments that displease them, and buy and sell the largest corporations like commodities.

    It is stunning to realize that the behavior of the governing institutions to which we give the power to set our priorities and our collective course fits the psychological profile of the psychopath. Yet neoliberal economists celebrate these institutions with the claim that they maximize the beneficial allocation of society's resources.

    By design and law the defining priority and obligation of these governing institutions is to generate financial profits to make rich people richer, in short to increase inequality in a world in desperate need of greater equity. To this end, the corporations that rise or fall at the pleasure of the speculators, assault our eyes and ears with advertising messages intended to get those of us who are already have more stuff than we need — to buy more stuff.