Regulatory Capture and Cognitive Capture

I was familiar with the concept of regulatory capture, the idea that an industry can persuade the government, or another entrusted regulator, to not do their job of regulating. This is usually done through the vast amounts of influence the business carries in the money it generates and it can be practically done through several means including lobbying, financial contributions (legal bribery), bribery (the illegal kind), insider appointment, blackmail, and situational/political leverage. This leads to a very favorable climate for the industry, allowing it to go on doing whatever it was planning on doing without interruption, and over time can even lead to opportunities to push the boundaries of its operations further since it can go on without any real consequences. This creates situations where lobbyists paid by the industry actually write legislation with built in loop holes so both the industry and the politician can come out winners. The industry gets the rules in place, or lack thereof, that it wants while the politician will boost their reputation claiming they are regulating or fixing something with their Swiss cheese legislation. This is the relationship we have in the United States between our corporate world and our politicians. It’s essentially the same relationship as bribery and corruption and it has existed for just about as long as both industry and regulation have. However, I was never acutely aware of the specific term regulatory capture, and I feel better now that I know it and can quickly refer to the concept by recalling this term.

There is a related term called cognitive capture, which I recently came across and it describes quite well what I’ve been feeling about US society on an even large scale, and really global society as well, for some time but didn’t quite have the vocabulary to say. The term is borrowed from the psychological condition where the mind cannot perceive even important things in its field of senses because it is too distracted with other things in that field. In its borrowed definition is means that nearly everyone who is connected to society is too mesmerized by the modern capitalist world, and in some sense bribed by it, that they can’t see the injustice and plutocracy of it. And even worse, the mind can’t realize the distractions are systematic, intentional, and yes, even logical.

Capture of both varieties is a logical step for a capitalist after they have started a business and made some money. For example, a known and completely legal business strategy for an established company with money when it is challenged by a competitor is the buyout. Just pay your competition to join your team. The competition is happy because they get a big payday (and they do all have a price), and you’re happy because you no longer have the threat to your business. My favorite real world example of the buyout is Facebook’s 2012 purchase of Instagram for a billion dollars. Instagram says “Sure! That’s a huge amount of money. We’re not worth a third of that!” And Facebook doesn’t have to worry about traffic leaving their network when users wish to quickly post their photos on the internet or spend more costs developing a better photo platform.

Now if a business is worried that some branch of the government no longer likes what it is doing, maybe the business is causing too much pollution or have unethical practices which squeeze money out of customers. Is there any reason why the businessman wouldn’t simply try to ‘buyout’ the government? Obviously you can’t just write a check to The United States of America and expect it to begin working for you. It takes a little more tact, but the result is the same. I don’t think it evolved one person at a with planted moles secretly working for the other side, since business and politics have been mixed long beyond any present day lifetimes. But once so many have crossed over and the industry interests are established within the regulator, it doesn’t really matter anymore, the whole thing is corrupt and anyone who has any clout in the government is at the will of the businesses that supported them getting there.

You can’t really fault the businessman for this approach, he is just doing what a logical businessman would do in that scenario. It’s the smart move, especially if it’s done in a legal way, which surprisingly often it is. If this businessman didn’t do it, there would surely be another waiting in the wings that is willing and would reap the benefits of capturing the regulators. You can fault the politician for being spineless and deceiving the public, but modern politicians are much more like desperate sell-outs than they seem. They appear well-spoken, confident, and passionate about issues and helping people, but rarely do their actions reflect that so I don’t believe their character does either. For every noble person who gets into politics, there is a two-faced one willing to take the money in exchange for the status, and then find themselves in the advantageous position of being well-funded, connected, and powerful. Politicians have been heading this way for generations, so nobody should be surprised by this now.

Now let’s take this capture concept one step further. Say you’re a businessman for a large corporation. There is growing sentiment that the public doesn’t like your business, let’s say because your business essentially holds people hostage and robs them of money but in a legal, financial industry sort of way. And though they don’t really fully understand it because there are many complicated numbers involved, people are starting to become skeptical of your intentions. Wouldn’t you try to run publicity campaigns which might help reshape your image? Wouldn’t you promote good things that you do to give the impression you have good intentions? Wouldn’t it be easier, cheaper, and more effective for these campaigns to do their job if you just ‘buyout’ the media companies or their members to ensure favorable news is reported? Don’t you have marketing people who know how to manipulate people by manipulating their ideas and perceptions? If you’ve already bought politicians, don’t you have enough power to squeeze almost anybody you want? Couldn’t this happen in such a way for a long enough period of time that most people in influential positions in many different industries fall victim or rather, get to their position, because they buy into the same capitalist mindset of trading in real world ethics for money? Media, government, law enforcement, the judicial system, the financial sector, the military, and education sectors all acting like capitalists in their policy and decision making.

The media doesn't tell stories that hold the most truth, that will educate, that have the biggest social impact. They tell us stories that will get the highest ratings and, in turn, make the most money. Schools don't contemplate educating children, they contemplate next year's funding. Politicians don't run for office without the support of corporate donations. When these capitalistic principles spill into places where they shouldn't be, they corrupt everything that sector is supposed to accomplish. This pattern of selling out principles for dollars repeats until systems are either capitalist or dysfunctional. Our idols become anyone who is successful, now defined as anyone with money. Then we start believing that capitalist principles on ethics, which are plainly not address in the parameters of capitalism, are the right ones. We believe that corporate takeovers which reduce competition are good for society because a few will profit from it. We start to idolize the sickeningly wealthy members of Forbes' list and a for-profit prison system as the sterling beauty of the profit motive at work. Individuals and business managers alike become obsessed with profit and forget compassion. Their actions reflect that. It’s like 1984’s thought police, except it’s not coming from a fascist big brother government, it’s coming from the businesses and the wealth holders who have long surpassed and usurped the government’s power.

If believed to be true, this somewhat debunks the conspiracy theories that there is an elite ruling class that have secret meetings where they plot to take over the world, which I always had difficulty imagining the logistics of. Maybe elite people have casual meetings, but it’s not 20 shadowy figures named Koch, Cheney, Rothschild, and Murdoch in a dim room in a remote location with cigars and collective maniacal laughter. It is simpler than that. It’s the result of the system, simply the logical progression of what a wealth holding capitalist should do based on the parameters of capitalism. And making money-based decisions everyday over and over for generations leads to a state where not only everyone who is ever in position to oppose industry is actually supporting industry whether they know it or not, but the trickledown of ideas and the whole zeitgeist changes to reflect industry’s capitalist beliefs. It transitions from corrupting regulators to corrupting society’s psychology. This is cognitive capture and based on everything I’ve seen around the world, and the way money is currently valued much more highly than, well, values, I believe that this is the reality of the world we live in. It at least explains why Republicans exist, why the government is proving less and less capable of making any good decisions for society, why most people are unsatisfied with their job, and why morals and appear mostly abandoned in the corporate world. Money corrupts.

It’s not a conspiracy. The industry mindset just prevails and capitalism spreads. And at the end of the day the morals that society takes on become the same as that of corporations. I think that’s what a lot of people are frustrated with, and I think they need to know that it’s not a conspiracy, but rather a systematic problem that is inherent to capitalism and any other economic system attempted so far.

I don’t have a computer model (I actually don’t have any computer models and scarcely know what one is) that will play out the variables of capitalism to their logical conclusion, and I definitely don’t have something that will do it on such a scale to simulate human society, but if I did, I think cognitive capture would be the logical conclusion every time.

If you are that capitalist, who maybe even once used your ripe capitalist brain to figure this out, are you able to sleep at night? Probably. Nobody that you hang out with really gives a crap about the consequences of those hurt by your actions, the poor and the thoughtful, and you’re so busy staying wealthy that you hardly have time to worry about the impact you have on society. It really is a time consuming thing. You donate some money to your friend’s charities or build a new wing at your Alma matter and name it after yourself every now and then to convince yourself that you’re giving back your fair share. You have your big house, vacation homes, you fly in a private jet. You have a wife and family, and probably a mistress on the side, who all admire you. You’ve bought in as well. And if that doesn’t cut it, there are plenty of other vices that can help you get to sleep. This capitalist structure and the lack of effective opposition leads to situations which grossly benefit the wealthy, and over time as the favorable climate lead to more wealth it all becomes quite concentrated at the very top. So yeah, that’s pretty much the story of how we got here.

Except to say, this scenario of wealth and power concentration has been repeated over and over throughout history. Are we ever going to learn from the past, realize this is the case, and have the wealthy power holders try to work with other classes instead of trying to suppress a cyclical and inevitable uprising? Are we ready to break the cycle and take the next step as a society? Or has the ruling class finally gotten it right this time? Perhaps the powers and systems that capitalism has created (especially including the severe concentration of wealth, a corruption of government and the legal system, control of law enforcement and military, the monitoring of innocent people through internet activity, the suppression of voice through a dysfunctional biased and blind media, the deterioration of public education, and through principles conveyed in almost every facet of our modern decision making) are now so fundamental, and the notion that only those with money have any perceived value is so wide-spread, that we finally have created the ruling class’ ultimate fantasy, a situation where an uprising is not possible.