Years ago I was an addictions psychologist working with homeless persons on New York's Bowery, and later in Boston. 

        As time went on, I began to compile a list of the addictions and compulsions of the surrounding so-called "successful" society. It was then began to realize that wealth & power had most of the symptoms of alcoholism and other addictions on my list. The symptoms included increasing desire for more and more of the substance, denial, harm to family members, compulsive loyalty and secrecy, impaired thinking, decline in the quality of life, and powerlessness in the face of the addiction.

Why does the pinnacle float above?
And why is it surrounded by an aura?

• Mahony Principle. In most corporations, those addicted to power, wealth, and work rise to the top. The more compulsively one seeks wealth and power, or is powerless to stop working, the more one 'climbs the ladder' and participates in the 'higher-up' decision-making process of the corporation. Through this invisible process, corporations over time and by slow operations acquire an addictive-compulsive personality. They, like any addict, act with complete unawareness of the collateral consequences of their actions.

• Inflation is the ‘more-and-more’ aspect of addiction—more and more alcohol, cocaine, etc. And more and more wealth & power. The Addicted System Corporation (ASCO) compulsively seeks more and more money no matter how much it already has. The principle side-effect of this process is that corporations constantly increase the prices of the goods or services they sell, both to each other and to the consumer. The result of this side-effect is that prices rise faster than wages, so the same amount of money buys less and less. The American dollar now has the spending power of only 7 cents compared to 1913. When our parents grew up it bought 14 times more goods than now. A baby's dollar buys one fifth as much today as it did when its parents were babies. Even in the Great Depression spending power was ten times greater than now. And all along ASCOs are unable to part with money.

• 

• "Since 1990 it is clear the economy was 'driven' almost entirely by the biggest injection of new debt in history, which produced a much diminished lower return in national income per dollar. Just as one hooked on drugs needs ever increasing amounts of drugs to 'survive', it appears America needs ever increasing amounts of new debt to eke out diminishing amounts of growth - - even with 2 wage earners per family." Grandfather Economic Reports

 

• GOTO Dramatic Data Reveal 30-Year Family Economic Decline

 

• Compulsive Loyalty.  Like the battered wife who constantly returns to her abusive husband, employees remain compulsively loyal to those at the top, even though many are not paid enough to have a good quality life.

• Secrecy.  Like the alcoholic father who hides his addiction and his substances, the Chairman of the Hoard is known by very few employees. His stash is well hidden and one dares not ask how much money he has. The Chairman, like the alcoholic father, divides and conquers: his codependent family, i.e., his employees, don’t know how much money each other earns. "sec're-tary, n.; one entrusted with secrets, from L. secretum, a secret. 2. a general official in overall charge of such work. 3. an official in charge of a department of government (Webster's Dictionary)."

 

• Denial.  Chairman would never think of himself as an addict. More likely a pillar of society. Codependents admire Chairman and are in denial about his addiction, and their codependence.

 

• Impaired Cognition.  Profit = Loss. News item says, "ASCO Inc. said Tuesday its second-quarter loss widened...posted a second-quarter loss…" But in the next paragraph we learn, "Revenues for the quarter fell 20 percent to $101.9 million from $128 million a year earlier source." ASCO had made a profit of more than $100 million in just three months, and yet they were crying poor! Their complaint was that they made less money than the same quarter the previous year.

• Short-Term Thinking.  Just as the drug addict is mostly concerned with the short-term procurement of his drug and not on the long-term effects on his family, ASCO is unable to consider the effects of its actions on the next generation of children. In 2001, the leading fossil-fuel ASCO made $5 billion in just three months as the US govt. was counting up its largest surplus in history. But all the while that ASCO was actively undermining a climate treaty that dealt with our children's environment.

 

• Powerlessness in the Face of the Addiction.  As the first step in Alcoholics Anonymous is to admit: "We are powerless…"

Preface

        This work is part of a utopian trilogy, each part a different way of stating a utopian vision. The first is Out From Under! Treating Your Own Addictions. This work is the second. The third, Utopian Capitalism, offers some step-by-step proposals for treatment of our addicted society.

         But addiction stands in the way. The American dollar has the spending power of only 7 cents compared to when my parents grew up. Back then it bought 14 times more goods than now. A baby's dollar buys one fifth as much today as it did when its parents were babies. Even in the Great Depression of the 1930s its spending power was ten times greater than now. 

        In most families, both parents must work as America has fallen from providing the leading average wage to 13th in the world. It is actually more expensive for both parents to work because they must pay for child care, restaurants and take out foods, two cars instead of one, etc. America suffers from an epidemic of overweight because families must eat reconstructed appetite-trigger foods made by corporations addictively driven to get people to eat more of their products. The children of the baby-boomers are the first generation less educated than its parents because its cost has inflated to unfair levels. The Earth is in a state of environmental emergency because we and our corporations are powerless to stop our consumption.

        The cause of all this may be wealth & power addiction reflected visibly in 70 years of rising prices of goods, and invisibly in smaller candy bars and pizzas, cereal boxes containing more air than cereal, and appliances that must be replaced rather than repaired. Like full-blown alcoholics, most corporations are powerless to stop and cannot see that they are addicted.

        As codependents to corporate employers' addiction, we as a nation are also in denial. Few economists remind us that inflation compounds like interest and that we are presently suffering under the burden of 80 years of compounding; and even though government constantly reminds us that the annual rate of inflation is presently low, this does not mean that inflation has magically disappeared. We carry 80 years of it on our backs every day. In this 'great prosperity' we are working more, not less, than our parents.