It is indicative of just how brainwashed we are into accepting that the way things are is the only way things can be.
I am struck by the all-or-nothing attitude towards the corruption in the banking sector; as if the solution is either to abolish banks entirely or to reject using them at all.
As I wrote yesterday, new rules in the EU and the US will allow banks to confiscate customers’ savings accounts in order to pay off losing bets made by the bank on derivatives contracts.
OK, those are new rules. The solution? Repeal those rules.
Furthermore, the allowance of banks to deal in derivatives is a relatively new phenomenon; they used to be prohibited from this sort of activity. The solution? Re-regulate the banking sector.
The same principle applies to corporate power. These things have come about through legislation, and that legislation can be annulled.
Something that is broken does not necessarily need to be destroyed if it is possible to fix it.
The private sector, big business, can be regulated (as it was before), corporate ownership structures can be subjected to legislative re-organization, for instance, to regulate wage gaps between executives and regular staff, or to give majority share ownership to employees, etc, etc.
Just because business has achieved a level of autonomy and impunity from state regulation, it does not have to stay that way.