HOW AMERICA’S BIG-BOX RETAILERS TURN THEIR ECONOMIC POWER INTO POLITICAL INFLUENCE

[Bill USA]

http://www.demos.org/publication/retail-politics-how-america%E2%80%99s-big-box-retailers-turn-their-economic-power-political-infl

The notion that all citizens have a voice in our country’s governance is at the center of the American ideal of democracy. Yet the role of corporate and private money in our political system means that the voices of the majority are often drowned out by those with the most money. The political spending of the country’s largest big-box retailers demonstrates how firms with low-wage business models turn massive profits into political leverage, embedding the inequality they perpetuate in the economy into the political system. This report examines the federal campaign spending and lobbying of the nation’s top earning big-box retailers, and finds that it is large and growing, and targeted at maintaining their economic power through political influence.

Big-box retailers spent $30 million on elections and lobbying during the 2014 election cycle, almost six times more than they spent in 2000.

Walmart and Home Depot—through their Political Action Committee (PAC) and individual donations—are ranked among the 100 biggest political donors in the country.

The country's largest big-box retailers spent a total of $111 million since the 2000 election cycle lobbying Congress on issues like corporate tax reform, health care, and labor, antitrust, and workplace regulations.
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[Initech]

1. George Carlin was right - it's a big club and we're not in it.

[nolabels]

2. With every strength comes a weakness

I also love people who complain about things they don't think are right and tell the truth to rest of people who are out there sleep walking around it. When a society draws to the virtuous and ignores balance and sustainability it will eventually fail. History is replete of how might eventually happen.