Is unfettered capitalism compatible with democracy? That is, when one sector of the population has the single goal of amassing wealth and will not be bound by the regulations of democratically elected government, then will not that economic system and that democratically elected government become locked in a death struggle? Will not that economic system use its wealth to take over the political system or, failing that, move it’s holdings elsewhere?

“Democracy” means people collectively taking responsibility for their lives through voting. If you embed that democratic process within an economic system that renders those decisions meaningless, have you not effectively killed democracy? If a democratically elected government cannot demand of corporations that they not pollute, nor discriminate in hiring, nor attempt to buy elections, then is that system democratic at all, or is it instead a series of corporate empires where the people only get to vote on the crumbs that have fallen off the table? At that point, is not democracy like the steering wheel we give to children in the back of the car to keep them quiet?