Zephyr Teachout Quotes
Google has established a pattern of lobbying and threatening to acquire power. It has reached a dangerous point common to many monarchs: The moment where it no longer wants to allow dissent.
Teachout, Zephyr. Break 'Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money. All Points Books, 2020.
His last speech before his appointment to the court.
Goldman Sachs, one of the largest worldwide financial corporation, not only spent millions on lobbyists to shape government law and regulation, but its ex-officials served on high government positions including Treasury Secretary. They also give large amounts to finance campaigns of Congressmen and other public officials who were then very sympathetic to Goldman Sachs’ welfare. There is no practical way a citizen voter can overcome that situation, especially by exercising the voting franchise.
In America and Canada, corporations, at their discretion, may leave a state/province or the country, and take their money, machines, and key people with them. The state and country lose the benefit of the employment the corporation enabled, the talent and productivity of the people who leave, and the business done by other companies in supporting the corporation. As a result corporations can not only lobby for whatever legislative outcome they want, and can give unlimited campaign contributions, but they can simply threaten to move to another state of offshore if they do not get their way. In many other nations, the corporations cannot move without permission and their assets can be frozen. Currency controls could prevent them from taking their money and running. The Freedom of the United States and Canada is well worth the risk of corporations dictating policy to government, but that is a very undesirable and undemocratic problem that must be faced in other ways
He made this quotation when he was a member of the Wisconsin State legislator. He was describing the influence and interaction that corporations had with the Wisconsin state legislative process.
The “rebate agony” referred to a corrupt practice of the Railroads and the Large Monopolies. The railroads charged a very high rate for the transportation of important products like beef and oil. However, secretly they gave back a large percentage of the transportation rate charged to the trusts. They in turn could cut their prices and undersell all the smaller competitors who were paying “full freight” and could not afford to match the lower price. As soon as the smaller competitors were driven out of business in an area, the trust raised its rates even higher than they charged originally. The Railroad had made a small but reasonable profit on the freight of the trusts but they were guaranteed all their business. They also made huge profits on the higher rates that the small companies paid until those companies were driven out of business. Journalists like Ray Baker and Ida Tarbell had uncovered the rebate scheme which enabled the trusts to steal high amounts from the general public through unreasonably high prices. President Theodore Roosevelt was committed to try and regulate the railroads and not allow rebates but charge the same public rate to all with no rebates. Socialists like Sinclair, thought that this attempt would be hopeless—that the damage had already been done, and the trusts now had so much money that they could buy state legislatures and many in Congress to preserve their dominance.
At the time many members of Congress actually allowed the American Petroleum Institute and other special interests who donated enough money to have their representatives draft legislation and markup language. There were enough members of Congress who would not pass any legislation unless the American Petroleum Institute – the voice of the oil industry – was in favor of it.
Zephyr Rain Teachout is an American attorney, author, political candidate, and associate professor of law at Fordham University.
