Many years ago America woke up one morning and discovered that a few "new aristocracy" millionaires with names like Rockefeller controlled the nation's economy through the monopolies they had built. They even had their own police forces to enforce their will, with no responsibility for anybody's civil rights. So we broke up the monopolies. Years later, when I began my career, there were 21 major oil companies operating in the US instead of just Standard Oil. When I retired 30 years later there were only three major players: Exxon/Mobil, Conoco/Phillips, and BP/Arco/Amoco. Somehow when these companies applied to the FTC for permission to merge, our politicians saw no potential problems. Ditto for the communications industry, retail goods, pahrmesuticals (need to check that spelling) etc.

The trend is clearly in the direction of large companies merging to form even larger and more powerful ones that are responsible only to the politicians they support and not to the public. BP presently serves as the poster child for irresponsible behavior, but only because they've had a run of bad luck. Wal Mart would be much worse if they handled hazardous materials as their core business.

The sad thing about this state of affairs is that people like me, registered Republicans, middle class middle-of-the-roaders leaning toward conservatism, are beginning to seriously question the viability of a free enterprise system controlled by mega corporations running unchecked in the economy. And to add to the frustration of our Republican adminsitration not addressing these important issues, Democratic politicians with their old worn out populist agenda don't seem to have a viable answer either.