We work full-time to afford rent. We have insurance and can't afford healthcare. It's not an accident—it's by design. Let's have a look at how it's done.
Thank you, America's Undoing, for the important information in this article which is so succinct and needs more eyes on it. Maybe someone with video skills can make a short video about this and make it go viral because working Americans don't read, however they have 3 minutes to watch a video.
Yes! Corbin's analysis deserves to be spread far and wide - and a huge piece of that effort must be to put it in the formats that work for millions, especially younger folks - videos/TicTocs/whatever.
@America's Undoing: Somebody send this post to Robert Reich and ask him if he'll do some doodles for us! Or does anyone know anyone who knows how to draw or put together a creative short-form video?? I'm gonna check with my tech-savvy husband!
Reich is just another POS that worked for the RICH he was there when the policies were made.
He worked in the administrations of presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and he served as secretary of labor in the cabinet of President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997
FDR created "we-ism" after WWII by creating national projects and programs to support lower income people. Part of the idea was that helping people to have livable lives reduced crime as people were not in survival mode. Regan came along and promoted "me-ism". Why should I pay taxes to help others. We have been moving forward with "me-ism" ever since. It is in our politics and in mass thinking. We were far better off when we respected each other and cared for others. Back to we-ism
Gah! I did not understand the depth and breadth of our troubles so well as now, after reading this article. I think we are born into this world to live, and want to experience our life fully lived, not to drain our lives enriching others. Thank you for beginning this discussion. I can't wait to experience more pieces falling into place. We have work to do!
I'm seeing a lot of comments saying "This information needs to get out!" Yeah it does. Post it on your social media folks. Aren't on social media? Send it via email to five people in your contacts? Better yet, invite a few friends over that maybe you don't talk *politics* and ask them what they think about this.
Corbin, I look forward to your upcoming article! In my view, the problem and its solution is pretty simple: mature economies need to move beyond the profit motive as a means for organizing commercial and social activity. Yet I realize that is tantamount slaughtering the sacred cow of sacred cows in this culture – the desire to profit and increase one's wealth is deeply wired into the American psyche.
Although the above may be too steep a climb, there is a simple, practical means to arrive at largely the same result: place a cap on personal (and perhaps corporate) held wealth. A compelling case for this was made in a recent article published in Time Magazine: “I’m a Millionaire. No One Needs More than $30 Million” by Scott Ellis.
Here is the alternative to UBI, which I prefer, as it is less likely to be infected by the possibility of financial sector/hedge fund malfeasance in attempting to get its hands on the income.
There’s no deeper rigging than what fascist-like administrators did to our education system—democracy’s foundation and our great leveler—yet teacher whistleblowers have been seeking help at WhiteChalkCrime.com and EndTeacherAbuse.org for over two decades to no avail. Because these power mongers who stole our schools forced teachers and their unions to comply, teachers have greatly disappointed us so we’re not inclined to listen to teachers—the clever power play that predators use.
If you want to end the rigging that did us in, listen to these whistleblowers. Read the memoir of my teaching days A Graver Danger. You will learn that school shootings are the universe’s red flags saying look inside your schools.
Instead of blaming our leaders that missed this hijacking of our schools, look into it and you’ll see why they missed it and can become part of the movement that gets our schools and democracy back.
Once you learn what’s been going on in our schools—including the highly acclaimed school where I worked—you’ll know why we lost our democracy.
This is an excellent synthesis of a crystal clear problem deliberately made opaque by those who benefit from it.
I'm a human rights attorney focused on holding corporations accountable for corruption and human rights abuse, and in that work I've become convinced of this: Unchecked corporate power is *the* central issue of our time — not because it matters more than other high-stakes problems we face, but because *not* waging this fight makes it impossible to effectively wage any other.
Corporate and financial looting has us fighting for democracy, climate stability, and basic survival necessities like healthcare with both arms tied behind our back.
This is an excellent inspirational article that brings up important questions and provides convincing arguments. And, apparently, the obvious conclusion should be "the rigged system has to be fixed", which is common refrain of many liberal economists and politicians, such as Sunders and AOC, who promote 'democratic capitalism' labeled as 'democratic socialism', which doesn't seem to have much substance behind the rhetoric. Also, the author "is finally seeing the thing clearly enough to fight it." Sounds good. But to avoid fighting the wind mills, let's have terminology clear. Otherwise, we will mislead and confuse ourselves.
When we say 'the system', most people imply 'the political system', but it should mean first of all 'the system of capitalist production' or 'the economic system'. Every political system is only an expression of the underlying economic system and is intended to support and stabilize it. There are many bourgeoisie political systems (liberal, conservative, democratic, autocratic, social-democratic, etc.), but they serve essentially the same above-mentioned purpose. Fixing the political system without or superficially touching the underlying economic fundamentals will never have substantial, long lasting effect what we can consistently observe in our country following the political game of ruling party and government rotations.
The capitalist economic system has never been "rigged", "built" or even created. It developed naturally a few centuries ago and has been operating on a few fundamental principles. And the core principle is 'profit maximization'. There are various ways of doing it, as well as various limiting factors, such as laws or labor struggle (The New Deal was one such factor), but the economic subjects, both individual (business owners) and collective (firms, corporations) will always try to overcome these factors in the most "economic" way to maximize the profits even if it can, ultimately, ruin the environment and even threaten the life on this planet, which is not an exaggeration anymore.
In this system, the labor power, both physical and intellectual, is simply the means of production, the same as machines, computers, raw materials, etc. The history convincingly demonstrate that well-being of its (labor power) owners, the working people, has always concerned business owners only to the extend these workers could perform their functions, and the labor struggle has always been the only way their well-being could improve beyond the bare minimum (inevitably reducing the profits in the process).
This might sound paradoxical, but the capitalist economic system was actually rigged by The New Deal, which was a successful attempt to stabilize the capitalist system in this country during a severe crisis and mitigate a threat of a mass popular revolt, which was prevented. And the gradual eradication of The New Deal achievements is actually absolutely normal functioning of the system, which is profit maximization, in different economic, social, and political situation.
So, if we want to rig the system in the favor of ordinary people again, it's crucially important to know what we embark on, work out an effective strategy, and develop practical ways of its implementation.
You and I must have had a Vulcan mind-meld this week. I wrote about the rigged economy in my main piece this week as well. SNAP, medicaid, etc. is actually corporate welfare -- the morbidly wealthy CEOs pay criminally low wages that even full-time employees can't live on and then we taxpayers give the corporations a subsidy by paying for their workers' food and healthcare. This economy is absolutely rigged and at least 99% of us should be pissed off. Here's my piece which very much aligns with your good stuff here -- https://cylviahayes.substack.com/p/our-broken-and-brutal-economy
Thank you for detailing the rigged, toxic capitalism system in the US. The largest corporations have always wanted a regime that has business expenses paid by taxpayers, while the executives reap the profits. So far, they are succeeding. Private equity firms - VP Vance invests in them - are buying out foreclosed or unprofitable farms to control our food supply. They are buying whole neighborhoods' housing to control housing prices. In addition to all the R & D we taxpayers fund for the corporations outlined in this article, US healthcare is run by insurance companies, an outlier among nations that provide universal healthcare to their residents. We 95% of us non-millionaires are being looted, systematically driven into perpetual poverty, while mega millionaires and billionaires grab all US natural resources, labor, and wealth. It is a system meant to break non-millionaires into being essentially serfs to feudal lords. This system must be stopped; it must end. How to do this is the existential challenge we face.
I am so happy I have subscribed to you. You see the FACTS and then explain them to us so well. I have been saying for years now to stop blaming the People the elections have been rigged for decades. And the people see it loud and clear NOW since the Clinton's (aka. The DNC Corporation) gave us trump
Update: A federal judge dismissed the DNC lawsuit on August 28. The court recognized that the DNC treated voters unfairly, but ruled that the DNC is a private corporation; therefore, voters cannot protect their rights by turning to the courts:
Thank you, America's Undoing, for the important information in this article which is so succinct and needs more eyes on it. Maybe someone with video skills can make a short video about this and make it go viral because working Americans don't read, however they have 3 minutes to watch a video.
Yes! Corbin's analysis deserves to be spread far and wide - and a huge piece of that effort must be to put it in the formats that work for millions, especially younger folks - videos/TicTocs/whatever.
I was thinking something similar about making memes about different sections but some videos sound better.
@America's Undoing: Somebody send this post to Robert Reich and ask him if he'll do some doodles for us! Or does anyone know anyone who knows how to draw or put together a creative short-form video?? I'm gonna check with my tech-savvy husband!
Reich is just another POS that worked for the RICH he was there when the policies were made.
He worked in the administrations of presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and he served as secretary of labor in the cabinet of President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997
We have a volunteer link if anyone would like to help out!
https://forms.gle/GkMJnuQcZnpChq789
Corbin, we need this out more widely. What will YOU run for, how about President. I'll volunteer for your campaign...seriously.
We do have a volunteer link if you’d like to help out!
https://forms.gle/GkMJnuQcZnpChq789
FDR created "we-ism" after WWII by creating national projects and programs to support lower income people. Part of the idea was that helping people to have livable lives reduced crime as people were not in survival mode. Regan came along and promoted "me-ism". Why should I pay taxes to help others. We have been moving forward with "me-ism" ever since. It is in our politics and in mass thinking. We were far better off when we respected each other and cared for others. Back to we-ism
We should have elected the Chimp Smarter and not married to a dog
Gah! I did not understand the depth and breadth of our troubles so well as now, after reading this article. I think we are born into this world to live, and want to experience our life fully lived, not to drain our lives enriching others. Thank you for beginning this discussion. I can't wait to experience more pieces falling into place. We have work to do!
Hey Everyone!
I'm seeing a lot of comments saying "This information needs to get out!" Yeah it does. Post it on your social media folks. Aren't on social media? Send it via email to five people in your contacts? Better yet, invite a few friends over that maybe you don't talk *politics* and ask them what they think about this.
Peace y'all!
Corbin, I look forward to your upcoming article! In my view, the problem and its solution is pretty simple: mature economies need to move beyond the profit motive as a means for organizing commercial and social activity. Yet I realize that is tantamount slaughtering the sacred cow of sacred cows in this culture – the desire to profit and increase one's wealth is deeply wired into the American psyche.
Although the above may be too steep a climb, there is a simple, practical means to arrive at largely the same result: place a cap on personal (and perhaps corporate) held wealth. A compelling case for this was made in a recent article published in Time Magazine: “I’m a Millionaire. No One Needs More than $30 Million” by Scott Ellis.
https://time.com/7325632/universal-basic-income-millionaire/
I read a book some years ago that stated no one should own more than $5 million dollars. How far we have fallen!
Hah - just inflation I guess!
Here is the alternative to UBI, which I prefer, as it is less likely to be infected by the possibility of financial sector/hedge fund malfeasance in attempting to get its hands on the income.
Federal jobs guarantee - https://pluralistic.net/2025/11/07/postwar-social-contract/
Another grand slam, Corbin. "Reagan sold optimism. Obama sold hope. Bernie sold revolution. Trump sold revenge." Should we start a guillotine manufacturing ESOP? https://www.nceo.org/research/employee-ownership-100-largest-employee-owned-companies
There’s no deeper rigging than what fascist-like administrators did to our education system—democracy’s foundation and our great leveler—yet teacher whistleblowers have been seeking help at WhiteChalkCrime.com and EndTeacherAbuse.org for over two decades to no avail. Because these power mongers who stole our schools forced teachers and their unions to comply, teachers have greatly disappointed us so we’re not inclined to listen to teachers—the clever power play that predators use.
If you want to end the rigging that did us in, listen to these whistleblowers. Read the memoir of my teaching days A Graver Danger. You will learn that school shootings are the universe’s red flags saying look inside your schools.
Instead of blaming our leaders that missed this hijacking of our schools, look into it and you’ll see why they missed it and can become part of the movement that gets our schools and democracy back.
Once you learn what’s been going on in our schools—including the highly acclaimed school where I worked—you’ll know why we lost our democracy.
This is an excellent synthesis of a crystal clear problem deliberately made opaque by those who benefit from it.
I'm a human rights attorney focused on holding corporations accountable for corruption and human rights abuse, and in that work I've become convinced of this: Unchecked corporate power is *the* central issue of our time — not because it matters more than other high-stakes problems we face, but because *not* waging this fight makes it impossible to effectively wage any other.
Corporate and financial looting has us fighting for democracy, climate stability, and basic survival necessities like healthcare with both arms tied behind our back.
This is an excellent inspirational article that brings up important questions and provides convincing arguments. And, apparently, the obvious conclusion should be "the rigged system has to be fixed", which is common refrain of many liberal economists and politicians, such as Sunders and AOC, who promote 'democratic capitalism' labeled as 'democratic socialism', which doesn't seem to have much substance behind the rhetoric. Also, the author "is finally seeing the thing clearly enough to fight it." Sounds good. But to avoid fighting the wind mills, let's have terminology clear. Otherwise, we will mislead and confuse ourselves.
When we say 'the system', most people imply 'the political system', but it should mean first of all 'the system of capitalist production' or 'the economic system'. Every political system is only an expression of the underlying economic system and is intended to support and stabilize it. There are many bourgeoisie political systems (liberal, conservative, democratic, autocratic, social-democratic, etc.), but they serve essentially the same above-mentioned purpose. Fixing the political system without or superficially touching the underlying economic fundamentals will never have substantial, long lasting effect what we can consistently observe in our country following the political game of ruling party and government rotations.
The capitalist economic system has never been "rigged", "built" or even created. It developed naturally a few centuries ago and has been operating on a few fundamental principles. And the core principle is 'profit maximization'. There are various ways of doing it, as well as various limiting factors, such as laws or labor struggle (The New Deal was one such factor), but the economic subjects, both individual (business owners) and collective (firms, corporations) will always try to overcome these factors in the most "economic" way to maximize the profits even if it can, ultimately, ruin the environment and even threaten the life on this planet, which is not an exaggeration anymore.
In this system, the labor power, both physical and intellectual, is simply the means of production, the same as machines, computers, raw materials, etc. The history convincingly demonstrate that well-being of its (labor power) owners, the working people, has always concerned business owners only to the extend these workers could perform their functions, and the labor struggle has always been the only way their well-being could improve beyond the bare minimum (inevitably reducing the profits in the process).
This might sound paradoxical, but the capitalist economic system was actually rigged by The New Deal, which was a successful attempt to stabilize the capitalist system in this country during a severe crisis and mitigate a threat of a mass popular revolt, which was prevented. And the gradual eradication of The New Deal achievements is actually absolutely normal functioning of the system, which is profit maximization, in different economic, social, and political situation.
So, if we want to rig the system in the favor of ordinary people again, it's crucially important to know what we embark on, work out an effective strategy, and develop practical ways of its implementation.
You and I must have had a Vulcan mind-meld this week. I wrote about the rigged economy in my main piece this week as well. SNAP, medicaid, etc. is actually corporate welfare -- the morbidly wealthy CEOs pay criminally low wages that even full-time employees can't live on and then we taxpayers give the corporations a subsidy by paying for their workers' food and healthcare. This economy is absolutely rigged and at least 99% of us should be pissed off. Here's my piece which very much aligns with your good stuff here -- https://cylviahayes.substack.com/p/our-broken-and-brutal-economy
Thank you, Corbin!
I'm currently reading the book Master Plan by David Sirota and recommend it to everyone here.
Wow. Most succinct explanation of HOW WE GOT HERE I have ever read. I am sharing EVERYWHERE:)
Thank you for detailing the rigged, toxic capitalism system in the US. The largest corporations have always wanted a regime that has business expenses paid by taxpayers, while the executives reap the profits. So far, they are succeeding. Private equity firms - VP Vance invests in them - are buying out foreclosed or unprofitable farms to control our food supply. They are buying whole neighborhoods' housing to control housing prices. In addition to all the R & D we taxpayers fund for the corporations outlined in this article, US healthcare is run by insurance companies, an outlier among nations that provide universal healthcare to their residents. We 95% of us non-millionaires are being looted, systematically driven into perpetual poverty, while mega millionaires and billionaires grab all US natural resources, labor, and wealth. It is a system meant to break non-millionaires into being essentially serfs to feudal lords. This system must be stopped; it must end. How to do this is the existential challenge we face.
I am so happy I have subscribed to you. You see the FACTS and then explain them to us so well. I have been saying for years now to stop blaming the People the elections have been rigged for decades. And the people see it loud and clear NOW since the Clinton's (aka. The DNC Corporation) gave us trump
Update: A federal judge dismissed the DNC lawsuit on August 28. The court recognized that the DNC treated voters unfairly, but ruled that the DNC is a private corporation; therefore, voters cannot protect their rights by turning to the courts:
https://ivn.us/posts/dnc-to-court-we-are-a-private-corporation-with-no-obligation-to-follow-our-rules
Great post! Now we just need to kick the dems and repubs in the crotch.