海角大神

A security guard recently told me he didn鈥檛 know how much he鈥檇 be earning from week to week because his firm kept changing his schedule and his pay. 鈥淭hey just don鈥檛 care,鈥� he said.

A traveler I met in the Dallas Fort-Worth Airport last week said she鈥檇 been there eight hours but the airline responsible for her trip wouldn鈥檛 help her find another flight leaving that evening. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 give a hoot,鈥� she said.

Someone I met in North Carolina a few weeks ago told me he had stopped voting because elected officials don鈥檛 respond to what average people like him think or want. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 listen,鈥� he said.

What connects these dots? As I travel around America, I鈥檓 struck by how utterly powerless most people feel.

The companies we work for, the businesses we buy from, and the political system we participate in all seem to have grown less accountable. I hear it over and over: They don鈥檛 care; our voices don鈥檛 count. 聽

A large part of the reason is we have fewer choices than we used to have. In almost every area of our lives, it鈥檚 now聽take it or leave it.

Companies are treating workers as disposable cogs because most working people have no choice. They need work and must take what they can get.

Although jobs are coming back from the depths of the Great Recession, the聽聽actually working remains lower than it鈥檚 been in over thirty years 鈥� before vast numbers of middle-class wives and mothers entered paid work.

Which is why corporations can get away with firing workers without warning, replacing full-time jobs with part-time and contract work, and cutting wages. Most working people have no alternative. 聽

Consumers, meanwhile, are feeling mistreated and taken for granted because they, too, have less choice.

U.S. airlines, for example, have consolidated into a handful of giant carriers that divide up routes and collude on fares. In 2005 the U.S. had nine major airlines. Now we have just聽.

It鈥檚 much the same across the economy.聽聽of Americans are served by just one Internet Service Provider 鈥� usually Comcast, AT&T, or Time-Warner.

The biggest banks have become far bigger. In 1990, the five biggest held just 10 percent of all banking assets. Now they hold almost聽.

Giant health insurers are larger; the giant hospital chains, far bigger; the most powerful digital platforms (Amazon, Facebook, Google), gigantic.

All this means less consumer choice, which translates into less power.

Our complaints go nowhere. Often we can鈥檛 even find a real person to complain to. Automated telephone menus go on interminably.

Finally, as voters we feel no one is listening because politicians, too, face less and less competition. Over聽聽of congressional districts are considered 鈥渟afe鈥� for their incumbents in the upcoming 2016 election; only 3 percent are toss-ups.

In presidential elections, only a handful of states are now considered 鈥渂attlegrounds鈥� that could go either Democratic or Republican.聽

So, naturally, that鈥檚 where the candidates campaign. Voters in most states won鈥檛 see much of them. These voters鈥� votes are literally taken for granted.

Even in toss-up districts and battle-ground states, so much big money is flowing in that average voters feel disenfranchised.

In all these respects, powerlessness comes from a lack of meaningful choice. Big institutions don鈥檛 have to be responsive to us because we can鈥檛 penalize them by going to a competitor.

And we have no loud countervailing voice forcing them to listen.

Fifty years ago, a third of private-sector workers belonged to labor unions. This gave workers bargaining power to get a significant share of the economy鈥檚 gains along with better working conditions 鈥� and a voice. Now, fewer than 7 percent of private sector workers are unionized. 聽

In the 1960s, a vocal consumer movement demanded safe products, low prices, and antitrust actions against monopolies and business collusion. Now, the consumer movement has become muted. 聽 聽

Decades ago, political parties had strong local and state roots that gave politically-active citizens a voice in party platforms and nominees. Now, the two major political parties have morphed into giant national fund-raising machines.

Our economy and society depend on most people feeling the system is working for them.聽

But a growing sense of powerlessness in all aspects of our lives 鈥� as workers, consumers, and voters 鈥� is convincing most people the system is working only for those at the top.