Neoliberalism

In his book Profit Over People Noam Chomsky examines the dominant global political and economical trend - neoliberalism. Chomsky refers to this term as a doctrinal system of principles also known as the "Washington consensus". Chomsky defines it as "an array of market oriented principles designed by the government of the United States and the international financial institutions [...] and implemented by them in various ways - for the more vulnerable societies" (Chomsky 19). In other words, private interests of a small group of people are permitted to control the social life of masses in order to maximize their personal profit, "leaving the majority of people in misery" (Chomsky 27). Even if that small group is in one country, and the masses are in another one.

Chomsky also underlines that although this is the issue "of a great human significance", it is "not very well understood" (Chomsky 19). The term "neoliberalism" is largely unknown and unused, especially in the United States where it is characterized as free market policies. Which is interesting, considering the fact that the United States is the dominant power in that new global order.

Corporate personhood

Imagine taking a trip to Washington, D.C. in about 15 years to show your child the original hand written and signed Constitution of the United States. But when you look at it you see that the very first words We the People were "corrected" into the words We the Corporations. Well, that's what you may expect in the nearest future as the Supreme Court has decided that corporations are given the same constitutional rights as the people. Corporations are now people. Or "transnational superpersons", as Thom Hartmann described them in his book Unequal Protection.

Hartmann examines the 1886 Supreme Court case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. That case can be considered historical as a Court decision resulted in the “initial grant of “personhood” under the Fourteenth Amendment to corporations” (Hartmann 167). But the Court had never stated that “corporations are persons”. In fact it was added by the court reporter in a headnote – a commentary in the introduction to the Court decision. And headnotes have no legal standing. But that judicial mistake was followed by other Court decisions of a great significance – like the one that granted the corporations with the right to pour money into political campaigns in 2010. And the unrestricted corporate control of politics seems to be just the beginning.