The Importance of the Economic Realm

We have accepted nominal political equality and democracy, but we have resigned ourselves that public control over the economy must be limited to a bare-bones social welfare provision and to [contested] oversight over natural monopolies (Canada-Post) or unprofitable, but essential, sectors.

So, decisions about employment, investment, the direction of our country as a whole, our ability to intelligently adapt to the limits of the environment, the possibility of working cleaner, more equitably, etc., etc., ... all of this is in the hands of private actors inspired by the profit motive.

The majority of us will live our lives as supplicants to the owners of capital, and we will live in denial [at least liberals and "conservatives" will] of the impact of huge inequalities of wealth and power on the democratic process. We will imagine that a government controlled to a great degree by capitalists, including (and especially) corporate criminals, will protect our rights and our standards of living, and respond to issues that the majority demands, even if they run counter to the wishes of the capitalists.

This is where we are now. This is where we apparently wish to stay. So long as we refuse to push for the recognition of the democratic, political, and human rights of workers within their workplaces, we will be forced to acquiesce to the undemocratic, inhuman demands of profit, and our political rights will amount to the crumbs we have now.