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Who does government serve?

It's been interesting to me to see the explosion of anger over which giant megacorporation is running the ports on the east coast. So this company happens to be based in Dubai. I think it's an issue that probably plays well with the ignorant people in the country who don't like the appearance of "them a-rabs" controlling the ports, but I doubt it will make much difference in terms of security. Or at least the idea of "where a company is based" will tell you anything useful. Most of these giant megacorporations are international enough that describing where they are "based" doesn't necessarily tell you anything about the politics of the company. The larger issue is that our government increasingly no-longer serves the interest of the people in this country -- instead they are responsive to the interests of the rich around the world.

I remember reading in a Robert Reich book -- maybe The Future of Work how increasingly people would realize that their interests would align less with other people in their local economy and more with groups of other people in the global economy. But the giant corporations have already done this with the US government. With respect to international politics, it is hard to tell who benefits the most from the actions of the US government, but it's pretty clearly not the American people. The Bush administation serves the interests primarily of the rich and powerful around the world. When they do something that benefits "America" its only a coincidence.

At one time, it might have been possible to force corporations to act in the public interest. Corporations were originally extremely limited in purpose and duration. Corporations could only be chartered to serve the public interest and only lasted until that purpose had been fulfilled: constructing a bridge or a railroad. Now, in a global economy, the corporations are on top and, with government brought to their heel, it's not clear how the People will ever be able to get out from under their thumb.