Capitalism has its problems.

However, it should be clear that at this time no societal system can beat it at creating wealth, promoting development and feeding more mouths.

Your lamentations regarding the downsides of capitalism have foundation. Chief of these being that capitalism when grown to large scale often swallows the individuals and becomes so large and automated that single individuals have lost much of the potential made available when corporations were smaller and business ethics were conducted at a higher standard than companies often practice today.

I find that the antitrust laws on the books remain mostly unused as lobbyists bribe lawmakers and agency directors to look the other way. Serious corruption exists in the banking industry, "financial services" industry, petroleum industry, agricultural industry...etcetera. No longer do politicians rise themselves up by investigating these industries and corruption in government that allows capitalism to morph into something less pure and poisoned by the bureaucratic controls and influence on industry.

Collusion, antitrust, age discrimination, hiring of illegals - the list of corrupt and unethical practices a business may employ to save or make a buck are endless.

Let's use the Petroleum industry and their practice of mapping out the entire US and stipulating the ranges which the price of gas sold on every square block in America. Sure, such collusion is illegal. Sure the companies have long since discovered that they make more money via collusion than competition - and this is exactly why the oil companies are an example of capitalism gone bad. Naturally, they have invented 1001 excuses to cover for their collusion and subsequent 365 day a year price gouging, but the real problem lies in the corruptability of government.

Basically, corruption unchecked creates the Saddam Hussein mentality. The oil companies feel immune now. They have bought off enough people at the local, state and federal levels who would go down with them if a serious investigation was conducted. Therefore they feel confident that no serious investigation will ever transpire. Just as Saddam bribed France, Belgium and Germany and had Kofi Annan and the UN as his lap dogs, the oil companies and their very cheap "investment" in politics and government has turned them into a communist type monopoly that doesn't fear the government. Another analogy could liken these companies to Al Capone, whose tentacles had already fully contaminated the law enforcement agencies of our government.

Is this a flaw in capitalism? No. Not really. It is a flaw in our government regulation of utilities and the way government can block true competition via corruption. When the California vineyards, Hormel meat plants and others hire illegal Mexicans to work their fields and plants, is this a capitalist failure? No, such practices again are a result of the failure to enforce the laws on our books.

So why is capitalism failing so many these days? Why are mom and pop shops made unfeasible and entrepreneurship less attainable? The answer is government regulations, taxes, and the rot that has set in at higher and long established sectors.

This is why the PR wars are so important. This is the missing part of the equation that you must realize. When the universities, schools and media side on the favor of illegals they are working against capitalism and create de facto state protected industries that can do as they please.

Only the PEOPLE can demand that their government enforce the laws. The people, in this busy age, rely on the MEDIA to tell them what other folks are thinking and what problems exist that need addressing. When the leftist media protect the corrupt companies in the name of political correctness and because they are owned by companies which are profiting from this corruption, we really see that media and educational arena discourses of political correctness are really invented to protect certain corrupt interests.

Sure the marching, well intentioned leftists seeking amnesty for illegals doesn't think he/she is marching for Gallo Vineyards, Wal-Mart, Hormel Foods, Reynolds Tobacco or McDonalds - but that is exactly what he/she is doing.

The political left find themselves whoring for the very corporate interests they supposedly despise.

All this goes on under the bought and paid for noses of politicians who see the illegal influx as a great source of illiterate, knee jerk voters who will be loyal to whichever party sells out to them.

Sure, George Bush is one of them. He's been bought and paid for. I have no hesitation saying it because Clinton was bought and paid for as well. Kerry was beholden to foreign interests, who make the oil companiy problem seem relatively minor.

That's the problem.

The ad-men and Madison Avenue are not the problem. It's the combination of an ever less literate populace, with an ever decreasing interest in taking part in government that, by default, allow the corrupt and corruptible to ruin the opportunities and more equal wealth dispersement which capitalism normally accomplishes.

That said, extricating oneself personally from the problems requires understanding how these things work and learning not to bias them negatively. You're new and so you haven't yet heard the mirror principle. So here goes:

Basically, if you are strongly emotional about something that something exists imbalanced within you. The person who is rude simply HATES when others are rude, yet fails to see that these others are acting as a mirror for their own rudeness. The "mirror principle" basically stipulates that the world acts as a mirror for things that are part of your own make-up and the things, people, events and attributes that we resent are really in ourselves and which we are unaware of.

So the gossip hates and talks badly about other gossips.
The overweight person criticizes the obese ones.
The control freak hates being controlled.
The pouter "complains" when others pout.

You get the idea. The secret to extricating oneself from bad business situations, corrupt companies, exploitive circumstances and so on - is to realize that these same things on dislikes exist within oneself to some degree. by recognizing this, immediately the hate and anger will subside somewhat. It is hard to hate oneself for any period of time. This will help to put one in better circumstances as you cancel out the "relationship" that you found yourself in due to these same attributes of one's own personality and past actions.

This is still a long ways away. Some folks get caught up in the escape mechanism provided by pointing the fingers at others. The oil companies may be corrupt but am I emotional about it because, when given the opportunity, I exploit others at times? The oil companies may not change but I will - I will be free of the emotion, rancor and bitterness that exists within me, and that is the best outcome of all.

That is what I try to do - put all these things in proper perspective and achieve some semblance of balance with them. In this way my life goes much more smoothly and conflict and trouble just pass me by more often than not.