Corporate America Meets Feudalism

Corporations have taken over control of the labor, resources, and power of the United States, and perhaps the world. Through codified systems of highly stratified hierarchies, corporate America exerts a profound control over the fate of people and resources in ways that can only bring to mind such inequitable power systems as feudalism, or even dictatorship. Bathed as it is in the myth of "free-market" economics the parallels between these systems are difficult to see. However, in stripping away the mythos of corporate America and breaking it into its fundamental parts, one can begin to see that the number of people who are profiting from the corporate idea are not so many, that the number who struggle under its thumb are vast, and that all of this necessitates the conception of a new paradigm for money-making and resource management.

To begin with, let's take a look at the basic feudal system.

The social strata of the Middle Ages relied almost entirely upon strictly defined hierarchies. At the top of this hierarchy sat the king; a ruler who gained power through blood ancestry, war, or other means, and who was often purported to be divine in stature. Beneath the monarch's power were Lords. Lords controlled land in the kingdom and swore fealty to the king in return for safety and access to resources. Lords also controlled men called Knights. Knights swore fealty to lords and often owned lands within the Lord's domain. These men could be called upon to fight wars for the lords and for the king. Beneath all of these land-owning men sat serfs. Serfs toiled in the fields all day long, breaking their backs in pursuit of a tenuous comfort granted them by the knights, lords, and king. These men and women were the great majority in medieval life. They suffered the most, went hungry the most, and died of the most diseases. They were the destitute and the downtrodden.

In Corporate America, there is a king known as the CEO. While we have stripped these economic giants of their divinity, we still shower them with completely ludicrous benefits packages, tax incentives, and pay rates. Below these magnates are executives who also sport healthy incomes and benefits packages, and who grant the CEO great power in return for the comfort and safety of their persons. Below these high executives are administrators, managers, and middle managers who struggle under pressure to produce or be replaced. These people will often earn enough to live and support a family, but little more. Below even these bureaucrats, managers, and administrators, reside the greatest numbers of people: Corporate Serfs. These are not serfs with a shovel or plough. These are serfs with cash registers, with paperwork, with mops and buckets, and without whom the tyranny of the corporate hierarchy could not exist. These people barely make enough to support themselves, let alone a family. They are the uninsured, the struggling, and the desperate.

When put side by side, it is easy to see the parallels between these two hierarchical systems. What is important to take from this parallel is the manifestly inequitable way that these hierarchies work. In no way can it be as simple as "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps." Pulling oneself up necessitates having the resources to do so, resources that are difficult to come by in a dead-end job working just over minimum wage. That is not to say that it is impossible to pull oneself out of poverty. However, it is a much publicized rarity, not a typical fact.

The majority of people slave away in corporations, dealing with intense pressures from the people above them, low pay, and mindless and degrading tasks at work. So advanced are we, that we have gladly inherited a system made use of almost a thousand years ago to keep stability in a time of constant war and chaos. Instead of advancing the comfort and well being of all people in a time of relative peace (at least domestically), we have succeeded in providing economic comfort for the few, while the many languish in unfulfilling and unsupportive careers. Corporate serfdom is disgusting, and we should work to find a paradigm that benefits a majority of people, not a minority of elite individuals born into privilege and resource.