ABCs of Elections in USA: a children’s story

Voting season is here and I am a rando voter. Out of all the candidates running, after some research, I decide that candidate X is my choice. So, I go to her website and contribute the default $27 and go on with my life.

Now candidate X realizes that if she is going to be able to compete with the other candidates in the marketplace, that’s going to be very expensive since elections in the US are privately funded (there is some public funding but it is so small it might as well not exist), so she has to go hat in hand to the people with money. That’s just the way it works in a US capitalist system.

Luckily, a company, Widgets Inc, has taken an interest in her and decides to contribute $1 million to her candidacy.

Fast forward a few months when thanks in large part to contributions from companies like Widgets Inc, our girl is now the presidential nominee of her party. Come election day, the people vote and choose her over the guy from the opposition party.

Now that candidate X is in office ready to make policy, Widgets Inc is going to ask her for their ROI. Companies don’t just throw away $1 million for no reason. It’s bad business. They’ve invested in this candidate and expect some return.

On the other hand, one could say I’ve also invested my $27 and vote in candidate X , but compared to Widgets Inc’s investment, who is candidate X going to listen to when making policy?

It can be safe to say that Widgets Inc’s interests are not the same as my interests. In fact, many of Widget’s Inc’s interests run COUNTER to my interests. That’s not because the people who run Widgets Inc are bad people or greedy, they just have to compete in the market place against other companies and cut as many costs as possible to make as large a profit as possible.

As a worker, I am a drain on profits. Widgets will always try to figure out how to pay me as little as possible while getting as much work out of me as possible and I will always try to get as much money out of Widgets as possible while keeping as much free time to myself as I can. No one is at fault here or a bad person, that’s just how capitalism works.

Also being a person of her word and wanting to continue working in politics, candidate X will do what she can to make the Widgets Inc of this country as happy as possible. That is how capitalism and elections work.

In the end my voice will never be as loud as Widgets Inc.

In fact, in the end I will probably have no influence at all on policy that will affect my life.

Goodnight moon.

The End

Alternate Ending- and this is how you get wages that have been stagnant for 30 years though the economy is “booming”, this is how you get NAFTA and TPP, this is how you get the Iraq war pts. 1 and 2, this is how you get increasing income inequality, this is how you get a decimated climate and dying planet….

Good night neoliberal moon