We've Lost All Sense of the Common Good

this is the corrupting fruit of centralization: when lobbying a few hundred politicos and a handful of top bureaucrats can result in billions in additional public spending sluicing into the coffers of special interests, there is no need to persuade the populace of the benefits to the Common Good of the proposed spending: you just spend a few tens of millions in our pay-to-play "democracy" and then reap billions as the payoff.

This is the direct result of ever-increasing centralization of political and financial power. The concentration of power creates compellingly tiny targets for those seeking to bend policy to reward their entrenched interests.

It's much easier to bend a handful of people with concentrated power (most of whom need millions of dollars in campaign contributions to maintain their power, rendering them extremely bendable) than it is to persuade tens of millions of citizens.

... The only way to rebuild a Common Good is to radically decentralize political, financial and media concentrations of ownership and power.

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjune17/common-good6-17.html