What is a Corpocracy?
DEFINITION
A corpocracy is a form of plutocratic governance wherein a society is influenced or dominated by economically and politically powerful corporations. This government prioritizes the interests of the governing corporations, or its owners, over public interests.
How Corporations Influence Politics
A corpocracy emerges and persists through lobbying and the ‘revolving door’ of U.S. politics.
Crony capitalists reportedly pay lobbyists to ‘capture’ legislators and regulators. With our Pay to Play system, some of our lawmakers and regulators commodify their time, meeting only with those willing to donate to their reelection campaigns, luxury lifestyles, or PAC slush funds. These dubious dealings enable big corporations to get away with unethical profit-boosting practices (e.g. price fixing and bid rigging). We, the citizens, end up getting ripped off because we have to pay artificially high prices for goods, including medication such as insulin.
The revolving door is when regulators/legislators essentially exchange roles with lobbyists. According to Public Citizen, 59% (26 of 44) of the 115th Congress left to “work for lobbying firms, consulting firms, trade groups or business groups that influence federal government activities.” When you have regulators and lobbyists switching places, industry interests and profits can get safeguarded above all else, even over what would benefit the public most.
A corpocracy can lead to a rigged layer of the economy, where big businesses can unethically profit off of the public with full immunity. This rigged layer has been responsible for wage suppression, rigged/uncompetitive markets, and lawmakers who legislate based on moneyed interests, not what they believe is the best for the public. By eradicating the rigged layer, we, the citizenry, will benefit from the potential trillions of dollars that get ripped off us annually.
How the Zero Theft Movement Fights the Corpocracy
We, the leaders at the forefront of the Zero Theft Movement, are waking up the citizenry, urging you to take much-needed action against the corpocracy and the rigged economy. Past movements have failed to eradicate the rigged layer of the economy because (1) they could not unite the public and (2) they did not have solid evidence to back up their claims about the rigged layer of the economy.
The Public’s Total Theft Report
Good news. With your citizen-led investigations and our secure, distributed platform, we can determine whether we are truly getting ripped off by crony capitalists, whether we are living in a corpocracy. The public has full and permanent access to all of the investigations, including the Total Theft Report. Your reports serve as the best tool to combat crony capitalists because:
- They provide a strong, well-supported case arguing how we are getting ripped off .Citizens will wake up to the rampant corruption in our system, and will feel the moral obligation to fight back.
- They propose an accurate estimate for the total amount ripped off. This is exactly the power Occupy Wall Street Movement lacks. Before we had passion and makeshift signs, now we have actual numbers to support our claims.
- They establish a hierarchy of rigged economy areas. Whether it’s drug prices, tax evasion , or the savings and loan crisis, etc., our reports will give you an amount ripped off in each of these areas. Furthermore, as our movement grows, we will have the ability to dig deeper, even going as far as to examine the role of a single company and/or individual in the corpocracy.
Again, we do not create the reports, nor do we prioritize one analysis over another due to partisanship or moneyed interests. We have as much power as each and every one of you has: a single vote.
Your fellow citizens have spoken. See an accurate estimate of the total amount your fellow citizens believe we’ve been ripped off.
The Zero Theft Platform
Through bleeding-edge tech, the Zero Theft Movement empowers you to eliminate the rigged layer of the economy while safeguarding you from crony capitalists who will oppose us. We have developed a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) for information, which runs on the blockchain. No other movement has a secure, distributed, and permanent platform with extensive protective measures.
Take on the role of a criminal investigator by diving deep into cases where crony capitalists might have ripped us off, in the area or sector of the economy which interests you most. Thoroughly examine the quasi-crime scene, expose the bad actors, and propose an amount stolen in your report/financial audits.
Who said heroism had to be hard? You can contribute to eradicating the rigged layer in under 20 minutes. All you need to do is review and vote on a proposal once a day. The best investigations will emerge across all economic sectors, providing us with reliable, citizen-sourced proof of the corpocracy. The more people who join the movement, the more legitimate and powerful these investigations become.
- Spread the word and continue learning about the harmful effects of the rigged economy through our free educational articles and book series.
Combat the Rigged Economy with the ZeroTheft Movement
We will wake up 330 million American citizens to the rigged layer of the economy. Trillions of dollars could be stolen from us per year. That could be as high as 10% of our GDP. Eradicating the rigged layer will provide everyone with livable wages, establish free markets where corporations truly vy our business by offering goods at competitive prices, and lead to the appointment of lawmakers and regulators who act based on what they believe would benefit the citizenry most. Let’s work together to establish an ethical economy where there’s zero theft.
The rigged layer of the economy is responsible for 50 years of stagnant wages, 50 years of anti-competitive markets, and 50 years of government officials succumbing to moneyed interests. We have been ripped off of trillions of dollars long enough. The Zero Theft technology distributes our power between all members of the public, providing you with a secure platform where your voice cannot be suppressed by crony capitalists and corrupt lawmakers. We will truly be independent, uninfluenced by bad actors who think money can buy immunity.
Alignment Checks on Articles
This is to make sure that the articles don’t go against our stance on the issues.
PrivC: Corporations or the Wealthy. PrivC = Privileged Classes
| # | SW | AR | BR | Ri | Factor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ✓ | The Antagonist (villain) is Theft by Crony Capitalism. That includes: | |||
| 2 | n/a | a) PrivC breaking market rates | |||
| 3 | n/a | b) PrivC making market rates HIGHER on prices on Products or Services by breaking free markets (laws or other unethical behavior) | |||
| 4 | n/a | c) PrivC making market rates LOWER on WAGES on workers by breaking free markets (laws or other unethical behavior) | |||
| 5 | n/a | d) PrivC making market rates HIGHER on prices on Products or Services by abnormally reducing competition (laws or other unethical behavior) | |||
| 6 | Ok | ✓ | We don’t make Free market or ethical based capitalism in any way a villian | ||
| 7 | Ok | n/a | Don’t make negative statements about the political RIGHT. (Unless the SEO search term is only people on the left. And it is very narrowed about bad behavior that only the right does that MUST be part of the SEO search term. | ||
| 8 | Ok | n/a | Don’t make negative statements about the political LEFT. (Unless the SEO search term is only people on the left. And it is very narrowed about bad behavior that only the right does that MUST be part of the SEO search term | ||
| 9 | Ok | ✓ | We don’t say that economics MUST have redistribution or beyond free markets. That is left outside of us in the “Partisan Layer” outside of us. | ||
| 10 | Ok | n/a | Don’t cover Partisan issues. Unless they are very necessary a rigged economy issue. | ||
| 11 | No | X | Don’t use Stealing/THeft unless it is at the start of the article and with the disclaimer. Use “Ripped off” instead elsewhere. | ||
| 12 | Ok | ✓ | Make sure title doesn’t cause any slander issues | ||
| 13 | n/a | If an issue makes people worry if Capitalism work, we then show it working with charts of GDP growth makes salary workers salaries increase proportionally before 1970. But then after 1970 is breaks, which shows a stealing economy being added above that. | |||
| 14 | Ok | n/a | Don’t paint “Trump” as the bad guy. It will drive away the Political Right. Often is there are far older examples, then use those. Or bipartisian examples. | ||
| 15 | Ok | n/a | If we talk about PRICE FIXING and SPECIFIC COMPANIES, then we are at very high risk. Make sure we say, “See the rigged economy report” to see which companies can be benefiting by PRICE FIXING. | ||
| 16 | No | n/a | When we talk about areas where prices go UP (like Pharma) we should show that in Ethical Economics, prices go DOWN over time when the produces are no longer cutting edge and brand new. Going UP very often shows a rigged economy. Like old medicines (Penicillin) prices going up. | ||
| 17 | ✓ | We don’t want to make a NEGATIVE to a group/forum/partisian side. We want to say HOW they can STEP UP to be HEROS by fixing a BIG PROBLEM, if they CHOSE TO. Make it sound easy. But they need to decide to take action. They can be excited to become heroes. We can refer to their community in specific. We indirectly are saying that they haven’t been effective at solving that problem in the past. We can show how easy it is it to solve the problem in the future. | |||
| 18 | n/a | Make sure our SEO articles BRIDGE into what we are doing |
Defamation Prevention Rules
PrivC: Corporations or the Wealthy. PrivC = Privileged Classes
| # | SW | AR | BR | Ri | Factor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Titles can’t have a problem. Their internals can’t reverse that. No Company name here. | ||||
| 2 | “Ripped off” is okay when “Stealing” or “theft” isn’t. | ||||
| 3 | The big problem is if we are talking about a problem with a SPECIFIC company or person | ||||
| 4 | The problem is if we are making a FACTUAL statement that they cna challenge didn’t happen. Amount stolen. A quote that was said. | ||||
| 5 | Worry if we author the content. Make sure we aren’t saying something. We need any statements of facts to come from other people:
| ||||
| 6 | Say “Voters approximated was stolen” instead “The exact amount the company stole was $3333” | ||||
| 7 | Our SEO articles are at risk. Triple check them | ||||
| 8 | We don’t want to make a BAD claim about a PERSON or a COMPANY | ||||
| 9 | The Economist magazine said: “AIG did XXX with their CDSs” SOURCE: “What did AIG do with credit default swaps”, The Economist Magazine Make sure the source is right next to the quote. Title of article is the SOURCE. Make that title a link to the real article. | ||||
| 10 | In the rare cases we use “Stealing” or “theft” it needs to not be in titles. | ||||
| 11 | In the rare cases we use “Stealing” or “theft” it MUST have the definition of our special definition of that very close by. Lower in the article we shift to “ripped off” | ||||
| 12 | Be careful of saying XYZ company did action ABC, and ABC caused theft. Be careful of us saying “They DID do action ABC” by itself. We want to say that “Anyone doing the action ABC needs to WORRY it caused a collapse later. See the Summary of Rigged Theft report see if this company XYZ had a problem here (by citizen investigation and citizen voting) |
Standard Disclaimer
The Zero Theft Movement does not have any interest in partisan politics/competition or attacking/defending one side. We seek to eradicate theft from the U.S economy. In other words, how the wealthy and powerful rig the system to steal money from us, the everyday citizen. We need to collectively fight against crony capitalism in order for us to all profit from an ethical economy.
Terms like ‘steal,’ ‘theft,’ and ‘crime’ will frequently appear throughout the article. Zero Theft will NOT adhere strictly to the legal definitions of these terms (since congress sells out). We have broadly and openly defined terms like ‘steal’ and ‘theft’ to refer to the rigged economy and other debated unethical acts that can cause citizens to lose out on money they deserve to keep.