The Telecommunications Act, big corporate mergers and the “Republican Devolution’s” attempt to “make government smaller.”

What do these three things have in common?

The corporate buy-out of America.

In February, President Clinton signed into law the Telecommunications Act that does two things: allow for a corporate orgy of mergers and buyouts, and limit your freedom of expression and speech on the Internet.

Supposedly, the purpose of this law is to increase competition, the benefits of which we have all been indoctrinated in, namely, better, cheaper products.

What then is the first result of the newly minted law?

Bell Atlantic and Nynex have merged together. That’s right. A law that allegedly allows for more competition has paved the way for fewer competitors.

The truth is that the Telecommunications Act doesn’t allow for increased competition, it helps eliminate it for all but the largest corporations.

Twelve years ago the break-up of AT&T was an example of the government rightly breaking up an unfair monopoly in the interest of consumers and small business.

Now, in 1996, Bill, Bob and Newt have thrown the spirit of America’s “Trust Busting” heritage out the window.

Of course, this isn’t simply a problem in the telecommunications industry, it is a problem with modern society in general as it relates to corporate America.

However, it is all the more telling in the telecommunications and entertainment industries because they control the flow of information. In a free society based upon an active and well-informed electorate, information is power.

Do you feel more comfortable with fewer people having a decisive say in what you see and hear?

If you doubt that this trend is taking place, open a newspaper. Disney now owns ABC. Time-Warner now owns the Turner networks (as if Time-Warner wasn’t a media monster to begin with.)

And that’s just the beginning. In fact, just three years ago Bell Atlantic, which is now merging with Nynex, merged with TCI, the cable operator.

Fortunately, the Federal Communications Commission’s act of cutting cable rates derailed that particular endeavor.

Unfortunately, that event seems to be a fluke. Instead of everyone benefitting from the growth of the American economy, only a select few are benefitting.

Not only is competition decreasing in the form of fewer companies, but control of wealth is in fewer hands. Forty percent of America’s wealth is now controlled by 1 percent of the people. That’s twice the wealth from just 20 years ago.

Why is it that we accept the need to limit the amount of political power any one branch of government has, but then don’t translate that into the amount of economic power—which buys political power—any one company has?

Americans claim to hold two things most dear to their hearts, their rugged individualism and a fervent belief in democracy.

Ironically, paranoia about one is undermining the benefits of the other.

Americans are so paranoid about government “interference” in our affairs that we all but sanction the corporate dominance of our lives.

We are so terrified of bad government that we assume that less government is necessarily better government.

Enter Newt and Bob, our heroes. Here to rescue us from the clutches of big government by handing us into the clutches of big business. This statement is more literal than you may think; the Republicans have led a national trend to turn over control of everything from jails and mass transit systems to even the police and schools to private business.

Amazingly, they have a great deal of followers and true believers. These people have been duped into believing that they would be better off relying on people out to make a buck than people accountable to an electorate.

These people have more faith in people who are motivated by nothing other than profit and greed than public servants.

I don’t now about you, but I feel much more comfortable about my ability to influence big government than big business.

At least in big government I can vote. Not only that, I can persuade others to vote with me. As for big business, I can’t do a damn thing.

I don’t own any stock options and I don’t have the wealth necessary to be a consumer to be reckoned with, so corporate America isn’t much interested in what I have to say (If you disagree, explain to me why Wall Street reacts with joy when major layoffs are announced and dismay when moderate job growth is announced?).

Americans balk at the idea of a national I.D. card, arguing that it would be a governmental invasion of their privacy, but we live with and accept that companies buy and sell our names and addresses, even credit history and buying habits, everyday.

If your local law enforcement agency wanted to place video cameras in the street lights, there would be a protest that would shake the heavens, and yet banks, department stores and even gas stations record our every move.

So twisted and entrenched is our paranoia about government’s role in our lives that we say nothing about private businesses’ increasing role in our lives.

Meanwhile, the wealthy secure their privileged status by encouraging us to eliminate taxes on them in the form of asinine schemes such as Forbes’ “flat tax.”

If being a rugged individualist is important to you, you might want to encourage your congressperson to reign in the corporate big boys and rather than mindlessly reciting “smaller government” as a mantra, perhaps we should ask for better government.

Peace.

David G. Mosby is a senior in political science from Chicago.