The Grand Bazaar

The U.S has morphed from a producer to a consumer society, where everything is for
sale; office, honor, public opinion, taste, and intergrity. To stimulate consumption
the marketers expend huge sums of money on surveys to detect the vulnerabilities of the buyers, so they can be lured to become docile and compliant enough to buy whatever the vendor is selling, even if doing so defeats their self interest.

Politicians sell out to contributors, so holding office will become a career. The public interest is only incidental. Reporters, commentators, college professors
sell their opinions to the highest bidders. The public is bombarded with propaganda pushing the agenda of the marketers. The appearance of truth in the propaganda is rare, and only if it happens to serve the purpose of the marketer.

Many purchases are made on impulse, subliminably stimulated. Saturation advertising, much of it covert through respected pundits on Radio, TV and in the print media, couched in so called "objective" terms, intoxicates the public to the point where their decisions are based on emotion, not reason. As a result the nation is controlled by an oligarchy of wealthy corporations with the most resources to manipulate the public, and the media. Nothing in our educational system prepares the public to analyze and deal with the propaganda that bombards them. "Intelligent consumers" is most often an oxymoron. Nowhere is this more evident than in the current health care debate.