America for Sale: The Rise of Foreign Powers and the Death of the Citizen

Most of you have heard by now of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of major corporations. The ruling today (1/21/2010) will undoubtedly live on as the death knell of the American people, where our voices were finally gagged by "TPTB" and a corrupt Supreme Court that favored foreign states over the citizens of this country.

Basically, corporations, even ones controlled by foreign dictators and unfriendly governments, are now able to flood politicians and media with unlimited amounts of money at will.

Don't think that's a big deal? Well, I've taken the liberty of providing a list of industries that operate within the United States. Each industry has an accompanying percentage value. That value indicates how many businesses within that industry are completely controlled by a foreign entity. For your sad enjoyment:

Sound recording industries - 97%
Commodity contracts dealing and brokerage - 79%
Motion picture and sound recording industries - 75%
Metal ore mining - 65%
Motion picture and video industries - 64%
Wineries and distilleries - 64%
Database, directory, and other publishers - 63%
Book publishers - 63%
Cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum product - 62%
Engine, turbine and power transmission equipment - 57%
Rubber product - 53%
Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing - 53%
Plastics and rubber products manufacturing - 52%
Plastics product - 51%
Other insurance related activities - 51%
Boiler, tank, and shipping container - 50%
Glass and glass product - 48%
Coal mining - 48%
Sugar and confectionery product - 48%
Nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying - 47%
Advertising and related services - 41%
Pharmaceutical and medicine - 40%
Clay, refractory, and other nonmetallic mineral products - 40%
Securities brokerage - 38%
Other general purpose machinery - 37%
Audio and video equipment mfg and reproducing magnetic and optical media -
36%
Support activities for mining - 36%
Soap, cleaning compound, and toilet preparation - 32%
Chemical manufacturing - 30%
Industrial machinery - 30%
Securities, commodity contracts, and other financial investments and
related activities - 30%
Other food - 29%
Motor vehicles and parts - 29%
Machinery manufacturing - 28%
Other electrical equipment and component - 28%
Securities and commodity exchanges and other financial investment
activities - 27%
Architectural, engineering, and related services - 26%
Credit card issuing and other consumer credit - 26%
Petroleum refineries (including integrated) - 25%
Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments - 25%
Petroleum and coal products manufacturing - 25%
Transportation equipment manufacturing - 25%
Commercial and service industry machinery - 25%
Basic chemical - 24%
Investment banking and securities dealing - 24%
Semiconductor and other electronic component - 23%
Paint, coating, and adhesive - 22%
Printing and related support activities - 21%
Chemical product and preparation - 20%
Iron, steel mills, and steel products - 20%
Agriculture, construction, and mining machinery - 20%
Publishing industries - 20%
Medical equipment and supplies - 20%

SourceWatch

16 industries are controlled by a majority of foreign entities. Notable industries: commodity contracts and brokerage, database analytics, concrete manufacturers, and rubber and petroleum manufacturers.

16 industries are owned by a large portion of foreign entities. Notable industries include coal mining, advertising, pharmaceuticals, and securities and "other" financial investments".

23 industries have a noticeable chunk of American industry (from 20%-30%). Notable industries include medical equipment, agriculture, investment banking, petroleum and coal manufacturing and refining, credit card and consumer credit agencies.

Not one industry on that list has fewer than 20% ownership of an entire industry. There is nothing that is "American" any more, and seeing as this list came out in 2002 before the Great Recession, that percent of ownership is guaranteed to be much, much higher.

On foreign ownership of US assets, including real estate:

Foreign creditors (our trade deficit remains massive, $600 to $700 billion a year) are hedging their bets by buying direct ownership stakes in our country’s assets. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the rest of the world currently owns way more of America (stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.) than America owns of the rest of the world…by a margin of $3 trillion.

Moreover, net foreign ownership is increasing very rapidly…it has multiplied by a factor of five in just the last decade. As a nation we eventually could cease to be capitalists and become simply wage earners. A country that goes too far down this path can be colonized by purchase rather than by conquest.

To turn it around we must save more and spend less.

Source

The government is officially a product of the international market. Those corporations that have highest buying power are now free to openly and brazenly shovel money into politicians that they will undoubtedly select for us to consume, and there is not one major industry that isn't owned by at least 25% of a foreign investor.

Now, how does this tie in at all with the NWO and the elite? The answer might be plain as day and published all over the web. Let's say on average foreign entities own 45% of major American industries. So what do the elite own of the rest? Here's your answer!

The top 1% of households own almost 40% of the nation's wealth.
The top 10% of Americans own over 70% of nation's wealth.
The top 20% of the nation's households own 85% of the nation's total wealth.
The top 60% of households own almost 100%, or 99.8%, of the nation's wealth.

The bottom 40% of households own one-fifth of 1% (or 0.2%) of the nation's wealth.

The bottom 80% of Americans own only 15% of the nation's wealth.

Source.

This means that the top 10% own 70% of the nation's wealth, not its assets. Total American wealth can be found by subtracting our assets by the amount of foreign ownership. So 100 - 40 = 60% owned by Americans.

70% of that 60% is owned by the top 10% of America, leaving the bottom 1-89% of Americans owning 18% of American wealth (60 x .7 = 42, 60 - 42 = 18).

So the next time you decide to vote for any politician, think about this. Who are they going to answer to? You, a single voter, who collectively (along with about 90% of the rest of the US population) owns 18% of this country, or the elite and foreign investors, who own more than all of us combined, several times over?

Nice breakdown gecko.

Is one world government already in place? Just that it is behind the veil of corporations and the elite.

reply to post by endisnighe


Thanks.

I believe that the NWO was seeded in the 70s and grew to fruition in the late 90s. Since then, we have gradually seen the veil of secrecy behind it become uncovered through legislative and judicial action.

I believe a one world government has not fully been implemented. What we do have are the pieces falling into place. Corporate mergers, consolidation of wealth and power, and the formation of industry special-interests is quickly allowing the elite to establish absolute tyranny over the common people.

Soon, we will have a system setup like China under the guise of a Democracy. The government will have the ability to quickly and decisively act against opposition to the corporate behemoths that are really running the country.

One has only to look at the direction the government is heading: Patriot Act, shadow agencies that kill "prisoners" without trial or jury, the growth of Executive Power, Czars creating government entities that pursue dangerous "conspiracy" nuts, etc. Welcome to the New Millennium!

reply to post by Avenginggecko


I am surprised no one has stopped into the thread yet. I have spammed it on a couple of others because it points exactly to what the recent Supreme Court ruling has declared.

Anyway good breakdown again. All of the pieces of the puzzle are coming together.

One thing frightening me recently is the unemployment coverage. I watch all the MSM channels. Just to see what they want people to see and to put it together with what we know they are obfuscating on and totally avoiding.

Even on CNBC a supposed financial channel they mentioned the unemployment surprising figures of 65,000 new people this week on the unemployment list. Yeah, real surprising.

Can you imagine still listening to their drivel.

I have been thinking about writing a OP on a what if premise that the Internet was never created.

Can you imagine if we were not aware of all of this? It would be something hard to write though, all the different variables you would have to speculate on.

Maybe too hard, might try it though.

[edit on 1/21/2010 by endisnighe]

Wow, great thread, Avenginggecko! The corporate hegemony is like an octopus, wrapping it's intertwined arms through all layers of government and means of production. Here is a website you might find interesting, about the incestuous domination of all media outlets:

The Big Ten

I just posted this on another thread. I feel that it would be more fitting here, however. I hope the mods don't mind:

____________________________________________________________

Well, Obama has served his purpose and now the corporations are back on track for overt control. This is a pattern dating back to at least Ronald Reagan, with the rescinding of many of the anti-trust laws and cutting funding to those who fought the monopolizing of the market:

Enabling a corporate merger frenzy. The administration effectively re-wrote antitrust laws and oversaw what at the time was an unprecedented merger trend. "There is nothing written in the sky that says the world would not be a perfectly satisfactory place if there were only 100 companies, provided that each had 1 percent of every product and service market," said Reagan's antitrust enforcement chief William Baxter.

Remembering Reagan

Throughout the 1980s, political conservatism in federal enforcement complemented the Supreme Court's doctrine of nonintervention. The administration of President Ronald Reagan reduced the budgets of the FTC and the Department of Justice, leaving them with limited resources for enforcement. Enforcement efforts followed a restrictive agenda of prosecuting cases of output restrictions and large mergers of a horizontal nature (involving firms within the same industry and at the same level of production). Mergers of companies into conglomerates, on the other hand, were looked on favorably, and the years 1984 and 1985 produced the greatest increase in corporate acquisitions in the nation's history.

West's Encyclopedia of American Law: ANTITRUST LAW

The lax regulation on corporate monopolizing allowed corporations to become the bloated entities we have today, known under the threatening moniker of "too big to fail!" The companies then commenced with cutting costs to further fund their saturation of the markets: less employees means more money to open new stores and branches and corporate offices in various parts of America and the world. American employees, that is: jobs fled this country to take advantage of Free Trade Zones in the Third World, simultaneously benefiting from the unstable social and political climates and integrating the concept known as Globalization. This mainly happened during the administrations of George H.W. Bush (some 200-300 companies closed up shopped and moved for sweatshops of developing countries during his administration) and Bill Clinton (NAFTA, which originated in the Bush Sr. administration, saw the loss of 879,280 US jobs).


Things moved into overdrive with George W. Bush: we saw the "war economy" inflate following the invasion of Afghanistan and the bogus War in Iraq - and people are just now starting to broach the fact that soldiers aren't the only thing invading these countries: American brand names such as Coca-Cola and McDonalds are popping up across the landscape. The first bailouts would begin under Bush.

But Bush was almost universally hated, confirming much of the left's criticism of the right. Something had to be done and the answer came strolling in with Barack Obama: a president who seemed to espouse the radical ideas of actually caring about the working poor and underprivileged. But in the end, that was lies as well and the corporations implemented "lemon socialism" to keep themselves afloat while robbing the taxpayer blind.

There seems to be the possibility, however, that Obama had a little fight left in him, having been used by Wall Street for their own ends:

WASHINGTON — President Obama laid down his proposal for a new tax on the nation’s largest financial institutions on Thursday, saying he wanted “to recover every single dime the American people are owed” for bailing out the economy.

NY Times: Taxing Banks for the Bailout

Too little, too late, Obama: the damage is done. Just days after you announce what may be the first idea in your administration that didn't have a corporatized ulterior motive, the Supreme Court demolishes one hundred years of advancement and progress. We've been instantly launched back into the heyday of American capitalism: the era of Standard Oil and Dupont, of the Rockefellers and the Morgans, of the Robber Baron.



_____________________________________________________________

Thanks for the info OP. I had no idea there was that much foreign ownership of industry in America.

This looks like it will be yet another stepping stone to revolution. How can one have faith in those you elect, when they are not beholden to you?
They all ready manipulate the shape of the congressional districts. There is hardly even a need to court voters.

reply to post by Someone336


Thanks for the great supplemental information! I'm glad you decided to stop in and contribute, you always have great information to bring to threads.

I'm not going to try and sugar coat my own feelings on the past, I did support Obama and believed he could have done some good for the country after the Neoconservatives and Democratic lapdogs allowed the Executive Branch to widen its power and influence, along with international big business. Obama has shown this past year that he is either too caught up in trying to be bipartisan or just plain ineffective at getting real policy that benefits Americans pushed through Congress. I've really seen that he truly is just another part of the sickness, and not the cure.

We were almost able to stop corporate hegemony at the beginning of the 21st century, but little by little, as the decades passed by, they were able to chip away at the barriers that kept them contained. The advent of mass media and the 24 hour news cycle was their golden ticket to complete and unrestricted freedom to pursue profit and policy.

reply to post by endisnighe

I have been thinking about writing a OP on a what if premise that the Internet was never created.

Can you imagine if we were not aware of all of this? It would be something hard to write though, all the different variables you would have to speculate on.

Maybe too hard, might try it though.

I say try it! When you do, make sure to let me know and I will definitely contribute. Even if none of these threads become extremely popular and get people riled up, at least you made the effort to get the truth out there.

And if there was no internet? I have a feeling their agenda would have been able to accelerate much faster than it has. However, it's a double edged sword. I think corporations and special interests are finally learning how to effectively use the internet to shape the public in harmful ways (look at how effective Organizing for America is and how popular WND has become). Honestly, I think the window of opportunity on using the internet as a good tool for getting things out there is starting to close. They have the money, they can advertise the sites they want us to go to, they can flood the blogosphere with their topics, and they can ensure that their web pages receive favorable search engine rankings.

Kind of depressing, isn't it?

Thanks for your contributions, guys!

[edit on 22-1-2010 by Avenginggecko]

So the next time you decide to vote for any politician, think about this. Who are they going to answer to? You, a single voter, who collectively (along with about 90% of the rest of the US population) owns 18% of this country, or the elite and foreign investors, who own more than all of us combined, several times over?

Great thread! Good points on the distribution of wealth in America. I just have to question what you consider foreign, because a lot of these supposive foreign elite are U.S. citizens as well.

reply to post by Avenginggecko


Is something else you need to add in your list, the fact that the top campaign donors in our two elite parties are,

Bit pharma
Oil companies
Insurance companies.

Life is great and about to get better, when this fat rats now can buy more of our political prostitutes in Washington, hell now they can prop their own candidates like Manchurian and own all congress.

All those with the most money to buy politicraps will have the right to free speech in America.

reply to post by marg6043


And add this into the mix; corporate fascism here we come...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Wrap it all up in the American flag and the Star Spangle banner
and it won't even have to be sold. People will be standing inline to buy it.

It's a brave new world.....welcome to the monkey house.

[edit on 22-1-2010 by whaaa]

Great list and topic. Much appreciated.

It would be interesting to see an in-depth analysis. Who outside the US owns what, when was it acquired, etc.

Foreign investment in the US is nothing new. Nor is the US investing in foreign companies and projects.

Investment is what keeps economies moving forward. It means taking risk, betting on the log term profitability of a business, an industry, even a whole country.

And there's a lot of hidden investment that doesn't make it to the charts. A company can be American but publicly traded. Routinely a foreign investor or group can essentially control it by acquiring 51% or more of the shares or a controlling bloc.

The real question is how much of the US is owned by co-operative foreign states like Britain, Germany, Canada, Israel, etc - and how much is being bought up by potentially conflicting states like Middle East countries, Russia, China, etc.

Overlapping business interests affects politics and foreign policy. A prime example being the US not responding to the 9/11 attacks which were determined to have been primarily financed and planned in Saudi Arabia. Too many shared interests in the oil industry and the Bush clique discouraged any redress of the Saudi ruling family.


M

reply to post by tooo many pills


Foreign entities include non-citizens, foreign companies, and foreign states. I do not believe the Sourcewatch list includes expatriate Americans.

reply to post by marg6043


Great point, Marg. And with half the insurance companies, 40% of big pharma, and 25% of petroleum refineries and manufacturers under the direct control of a non-US entity, foreign states now have us right where they want us.

I have never really felt as upset, angry, and almost hopeless as I do now. I feel like our last opportunity to really change this country for the better was just shot at point blank with a sawed-off shotgun. From now on, it will no longer be about what's best for America, but what's best for the S&P 500.

ETA for Michael:

The real question is how much of the US is owned by co-operative foreign states like Britain, Germany, Canada, Israel, etc - and how much is being bought up by potentially conflicting states like Middle East countries, Russia, China, etc.

Just because a foreign investor is in the UK doesn't make them cooperative or even caring about what happens to normal Americans. In unrestrained corpofascism, the only thing that matters is the bottom line and the returns you get on your dividends.


[edit on 22-1-2010 by Avenginggecko]

Just looking over the original list.

Unfortunately too vague with a lot of internal inconsistencies. Specifics needed.

Examples of contradictions:

Sound recording industries - 97%
Motion picture and sound recording industries - 75%
Motion picture and video industries - 64%

Book publishers - 63%
Publishing industries - 20%

Originally posted by Avenginggecko
I have never really felt as upset, angry, and almost hopeless as I do now. I feel like our last opportunity to really change this country for the better was just shot at point blank with a sawed-off shotgun. From now on, it will no longer be about what's best for America, but what's best for the S&P 500.

Dear I have been swallowing tears of frustration, when rather than going forward in the name of the American citizens we are going back-wards.

This brings such a sense of hopelessness that is very difficult to describe to those that have no clue of the many ramifications that it will bring to the power that people used to have in politics.

While many think that people now can have a voice, we actually never did, as we the regular people can never compete with corporate money, we will never have the power.

Originally posted by mmiichael

Just looking over the original list.

Unfortunately too vague with a lot of internal inconsistencies. Specifics needed.

Examples of contradictions:

Sound recording industries - 97%
Motion picture and sound recording industries - 75%
Motion picture and video industries - 64%

Book publishers - 63%
Publishing industries - 20%

Those are specific categories within a category. In North America, a business is assigned a specific NAICS code to categorize its operations. Codes go from broad to specific in a 2, 4, then 6 digit pattern.

For instance, there are 44 in the book publishing categories and then 291 categories in the broader Publishing category. When a sub category contains a disproportionate amount of ownership, I believe they also listed it.

Sound recording industries and motion picture and video industries are more specific sub categories of "motion picture and sound recording industries".

As i said in another thread i dont see why we bother having elections at all because whomever wins only represents these corporations who have already driven this country into the ground.As the tyrany grows so do the seeds of anarchy.