> Capitalism is anti-democratic. The vaunted "shareholder democracy" of
> capitalism does not embody democratic principles; it subverts them.
> The essence of political democracy is: one *person*, one vote. The
> essence of shareholder democracy is: one *share*, one vote. This
> means the corporate CEOs and the wealthy elite who control most
> people's livelihoods have no accountability to average people.
It's worse than that, of course. Look at a typical proxy sent to shareholders of a public company. (Of course, all shareholders are eligible to attend annual meetings, but they're generally not set up for the convenience of the majority of owners.) Generally, there's a slate of directors and a vote or three about options packages for executives and directors. The day-to-day decisions of the corporations are not up for vote. Management is not up for election. And mutual funds, which typical investors use for investing, are rarely motivated to challenge management about anything or even to shake up the board of directors. In classical terms, it's a systematic principal-agent problem. In less classical terms, it's the base for a huge and hugely knackered superstructure.
--tim f-w.