They really do have far too much power and influence. Capitalism without ethics will always be a detriment to the people.

Without ethics in place it's just everyone out for themselves trying to get paid while the rest just try to survive without losing it all.

Never fully understood how bad it can be until I saw my rural area get taken over. A decade or so ago it was just a town of poor folks and prices for housing, food etc. Reflected that. Then the rich folks, corporations etc discovered that money could be made here and that was it. All of the small businesses have been bought out and replaced with chain stores. Prices for everything have drastically increased to where a cheeseburger that sold for $5 a few years ago is now $25. Homes that were selling for $60k are now hundreds of thousands, a million in some cases. Almost all of the farmland was bought and sold to developers then turned into subdivisions who then marketed to "higher" class citizens who could afford to pay the asking price.

It was a small town where everyone knew each other. To date I'd estimate that 90% of those families have moved within a 10 year period. These are multigenerational families, many of which can date their family history here back to when their ancestors first migrated here.

Now it's just a sea of opportunity for those into real estate and big business.

The common people never had a choice in the matter. These people just used their deep pockets to take everything over.