Capitalistic vision Vs "Too big to fail" policy

The following is a powerful visionary statement of the CEO Arthur Jenson to the mad television anchor Mr. Beale in the movie 'Network' (yr 1976 - great movie to watch!).

(In a loud dramatic voice!) "You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reichmarks, Yen, Rubles, Pounds, and Shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!

(Soft voice) Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?

(Loud again) You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state — Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality — one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused"

- From the movie Network (1976)


Is this capitalistic vision doomed by the current worldwide economic crisis? We are certainly bitten by the "Too big to fail" policy. "Governments" had to bail out big banks and corporations all over the world.

The notion of separation of State and Business (Wall Street) is not working, is it?! Ayn Rand's school of thought subscribed to by such stalwarts as Alan Greenspan that "unregulated market will take care of itself" has caused this "moral hazard" where in tax payers ended up paying for the mistakes of big businesses.

When religion was mixed with the State, it caused havoc in the earlier centuries. Separation of State and Religion policy eliminated the influence of religious leaders in the Government. Right now, there is a revolving door arrangement between Wall Street and Washington. Ex-Wall Street CEOs go into policy making to work as part of the government and retired politicians work for Wall Street as lobbyists for businesses. This arrangement has badly hurt the people all over the world but benefited Wall Street and the politicians handsomely.

Where do we go from here? Is this a passing phase? Is closing the revolving door possible? Is Government oversight a permanent requirement for big businesses? As of now, it looks like that grand capitalistic vision of establishing one big corporation for the entire world will never work. There is too much at stake for such a company to fail. As long as sovereign nations exist to protect the citizens within the physical boundaries of a country, the global vision will be limited and strictly regulated. Currency values, exports, imports, tariffs, subsidies will be determined by the government policies rather than by the business interests.

In short, politics will trump economics always. Although economics is global all politics is local!
.