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In season 1 of The Story of Stuff,
we looked at a system that

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creates way too much stuff, and 
way too little of what we really want.

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Now we're going to start looking at 
the stories behind the Story of Stuff.

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That's where we'll find ways 
to turn this situation around.

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Welcome to Season 2!

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"Bad for you, bad for America!"
"He'll put us back on track."

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"... ran our state into the ground, now he wants to 
be your senator." "Stand up! Say No!"

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"Stand up and say no!" "Bad for you, bad for 
America!" "Vote for this guy!" "Vote for this guy!"

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Aren't you tired of this stuff?

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Why is it that every election season, it becomes 
impossible to hear the facts over all these

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misleading ads?

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And if it seems the problem is only getting
worse, that's because it is.

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We can thank the Supreme Court for that.

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In 2010, they decided that 
it'd be just fine

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for corporations to spend as much money as they
want telling us who to vote for.

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Wait,

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why are corporations telling us who to vote for?

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Let's get something straight.

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This is a democracy,
you know rule by the people?

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I'm a person. You're a person. And Chevron?

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Not a person.

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So shouldn't elections be 
all about what people want?

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Good Jobs. Safe products. Healthcare.
Responsible Government.

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Clean air and water.

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It turns out that the vast majority of Americans
want to see a lot more done on all of these things.

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But what people want will take a backseat
as long as corporations can spend millions

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getting lawmakers elected.

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Oil companies have gotten politicians to block
laws protecting our climate.

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Manufacturers have pushed through trade agreements
that gut product safety and help ship jobs overseas.

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Insurance companies have been the first ones
consulted on health reform and giant corporations

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have gotten bail-outs and subsidies.

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Maybe that's why all kinds of people - Republicans,
Democrats, Independents -- are totally frustrated

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with our government. 
(Angry Crowd yelling)

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It's easy to get angry.

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But it's time we got smart and realized that the
heart of our problem is not that we have bad

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lawmakers. We have a democracy in crisis.

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85% of Americans feel that corporations 
have too much power in our democracy

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and people have too little.

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85 percent!

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Hey, that's a majority. So let's get together 
and take our democracy back from corporations.

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It's the first and most important step in
making real progress on all the issues

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people care most about.

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So how did "we the people" lose control 
of our democracy to begin with?

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Let's go back a few centuries.

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Back then there were just people.

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Some of them owned businesses. 
Some of them worked for businesses.

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Still, there were just people. Then people invented 
something entirely new -- the corporation.

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These legal entities exist independently
of the people who own them.

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If a corporation does something that gets it into
trouble, the owners can say, don't blame me,

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blame the corporation. I'm just a shareholder!

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When the United States came into existence,

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corporations were easier to keep in check.

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Back then,

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the government would grant them charters for
a specific short-term project, like building a

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bridge or a railroad.

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Once they fulfilled their purpose,
they were disbanded.

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But over time, the law changed and corporations no 
longer had to be turned off once their project was

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complete.

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They began to live on indefinitely,

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with a much more general purpose,

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profit.

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And that's how the modern corporation
was born.

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Today's corporations have evolved to have something
very dangerous in their programming.

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Unlike people, who are driven by all kinds
of motivations --

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doing the right thing, love for family,
their country, the planet --

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publicly traded corporations are now required,
by law and the markets, to pursue one single

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motivation above all others.

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Maximize value for shareholders --

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make as much money as possible.

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That's it.

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No, really, that's what the law
and the markets demand.

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Imagine a friend saying
"The only thing I really care about is money."

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Not someone you'd want to leave your kids
with, or your democracy for that matter.

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Yes, it is people who run these corporations

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but their human motivations come second.

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If they prioritize anything at all over
maximizing profits, they're outta there.

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Can corporate leaders do good things like
give to charity or try to be more green?

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Sure. But not if it conflicts with maximum profits.

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And since their humble beginnings,
corporations have grown huge.

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53 of the 100 biggest economies
on earth are now corporations.

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So corporations have a 
single-minded profit motive.

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They're humungous. And their owners can

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easily dodge the blame for any harm they cause.

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That makes them tricky to share a country with.

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If we want them to serve us and not the other 
way around, they need some basic ground rules.

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And that's where the government comes in,

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setting rules to keep things fair and safe
and to protect society from

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corporations run amok.

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Now if their main objective is to maximize
profit, do you think corporations are content

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to follow rules that keep them in check?

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No, of course not. 
They want to write those rules.

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But who is supposed to write
the rules in a democracy?

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People.

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That's why one of the corporations' key 
strategies for sneaking into our democracy

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is saying they should have the same First
Amendment rights as real, live people.

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And that's exactly how they won that 2010
Supreme Court case known as

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Citizens United vs. FEC.

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In that case, five members of the Supreme Court
decided that it's unconstitutional

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to put any limits on how much money corporations
can spend influencing elections.

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Why? They said these limits violate the first
amendment guaranteeing free speech.

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Obviously our founding fathers who wrote 
the first amendment were trying to protect

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the free speech of people.

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But this decision rides on the crazy argument that
corporations should be treated the same as

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people and should get the 
same rights real people get!

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This means corporations can spend as much 
as they want, whenever they want to intimidate

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or crush candidates running on a
platform against their interests

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and support candidates who will do what they ask.

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Great news for corporations wanting to
handpick the lawmakers whose job it is

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to keep them in check.

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Now, I'm all for free speech!

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If every shareholder and employee at Exxon 
wants to personally support some oil lobbyist

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running for senate, it's their right.

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There are millions more people who 
will support a different candidate.

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That's democracy in action!

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But now Exxon or any other corporation, can
decide to spend unlimited dollars from its

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huge corporate coffers to influence an election,

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without even consulting its shareholders.

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This is a big deal.

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If the top 100 corporations decided 
to throw in just 1% of their profits,

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they could outspend every candidate 
for president, house and senate combined!

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Good luck having your free speech
heard over that!

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So did opening the floodgates on this money
actually cause a flood?

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Sure did.

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In 2010,

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the kind of "independent groups" that 
corporations are now allowed to support,

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spent $300 million.

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That's more than every midterm
election since 1990 combined!

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So corporations are drowning out our voices,

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getting what they want and 
our democracy is in trouble.

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But we can totally save it!

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People are so outraged by the Supreme Court 
Decision that a massive response is mobilizing.

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Such a huge problem requires a huge solution

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and we've got one,

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a new constitutional amendment.

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The amendment is smart and clear. It reverses this
disaster to our democracy by clarifying that

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the first amendment isn't meant
for for-profit corporations.

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I get that amending the constitution
is a big, ambitious goal.

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But it's not impossible.

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Every time huge positive change has been made in
this country,

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it's because people dreamed big,
aimed high, and set ambitious goals.

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It's time to do that now,

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because the life of our 
democracy is on the line.

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Public Financing of campaigns would
be another huge step forward.

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Congress is working on a bill right now 
that would make it possible for candidates

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to get elected without corporate dollars.

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Remember, 85% of Americans think that
corporations have too much influence

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in our democracy.

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That's enough to make change,

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if we can turn that sentiment into action.

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Look, the corporations won't get out of our 
democracy until we, the people, get back in.

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So keep fighting for renewable energy, green 
jobs, health care, safe products and top-notch

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public education.

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But save some energy for 
the battle of our lifetimes.

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...A battle that can open the door
to solving all of these things.

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It's time to put corporations back in their place
and to put people back in charge of our democracy.