In 2014, two Princeton professors published a study that said “analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.“
Translation: the corporations are in control in the US, not the people. Corporate brainwashing is a tool that said companies use to keep people locked into jobs they don’t like, producing ever more profit for the company.
Companies have a true interest in keeping their employees dependent on what the company provides (health insurance, life insurance, a paycheck) so that employees work for as long as possible.
On the flip side of this is the idea of financial freedom. Financial freedom gives you back your life inside this system. The less you rely on trading time for money, the more freedom you can carve out for yourself.
How Corporations Got So Powerful
We can trace so much of how we live currently to the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s. The Industrial Revolution shaped a lot of our culture, our laws, and how we work.
In the 1800’s it was common for children as young as 6 to work, either on farms or in factories. In 1938 child labor for kids under 18 and 16 years old (Children under 18 can’t do certain dangerous jobs, and children under 16 cannot work in manufacturing, mining, or during school hours.)
The Industrial Revolution was also a time that companies both expanded and consolidated their power. Standard Oil, the company that made the Rockefellers billionaires, was essentially a monopoly from 1899 to 1911 and was the largest company in the US.
It operated by creating many different companies that worked under the banner of one parent company, a strategy still very much in use today. For example, Disney is the parent company of ESPN.
By breaking into smaller companies owned by one parent company, companies are able to take advantage of different tax benefits and sometimes skirt laws around employee benefits and pay. This means more money can remain in the company, and flowing to the owners and shareholders.
Since the Industrial Revolution, companies have lobbied the government to create laws that are more favorable to them, such as limiting pension offerings (meaning companies pay less in employee retirement benefits) or amending minimum wage laws to exclude tipped workers or disabled workers.
These kinds of laws and amendments make it harder for employees to advocate for themselves. Worker’s rights have been slowly being eroded for the last 100 years in the US, bringing us to the hostile corporate culture we have now.
Corporate brainwashing has been so successful that you have huge parts of the country that advocate against things like raising the federal minimum wage, which would only benefit workers. It does mean that companies would have to pay more though, and so the corporate brainwashing strategy is to get workers to fight against their own interest.
How Corporate Brainwashing Took Over Our Daily Lives
At the same time as the laws in the US were being amended to become more friendly towards businesses and more antagonistic to workers, companies were also working to make people more reliant on companies.
Think about the phrase “We’re like a family here”, which many companies use to describe their workplace culture. The idea of how you should spend your time shifted from a family-first mentality of the 1920s, 30’s, and 40’s, to a work-first mindset in the post-World War Two industrial boom.
The early 20th century was the birth of corporate brainwashing.
When soldiers came home from the war, women had entered the workforce. It was a cultural change that would never be undone. Companies created whole new industries to create new jobs.
For example, in the 1800s and early 1900s, women didn’t remove any body hair. In the 1940s and 1950s, a campaign from razor companies to sell more razors shifted that cultural norm to women removing leg and armpit hair.
As a result, these companies were able to hire more people in their production, sales, and marketing teams, since they were selling more products.
Companies used marketing to sell images of what a perfect like looked like, from what kind of body you should have, to what kind of home, romantic partner, hairstyle, and even what kind of coffee you should buy.
In order to achieve this lifestyle, you needed money. And in order to make money, you needed a job.
Work became the centerpiece of our individual lives and a cultural norm. Consider how common the question “What do you do?” is today. What we’re asking is “What is your job? Where do you work?”
If we ever encounter someone who doesn’t work, we consider that strange. Unemployment is something to be ashamed of. We’re deeply judgemental and even suspicious of people who are not working.
The only socially acceptable way to be unemployed is to be retired, but we in the US generally only consider retirement to be something for people who have already worked 30-40 years.
But there is something called financial freedom that is an option for more and more people in the US, where you can leave work earlier than 65 and have enough money to fund your life.
3 Steps To Financial Freedom
If all this has you fired up to try and free yourself from our corporate overlords, I have good news! The idea of financial freedom is that you have enough money in investments to live off the interest and not need to work.
Financial freedom may also involve a passive income strategy. You can watch our FREE workshop on building passive income right here.
Creating financial flexibility in your life, and escaping corporate brainwashing, is probably easier than you think. Small financial changes in your saving, spending, and investing can open you up to a whole new world.
Step 1. Do a Financial Audit And See Where You Currently Are
We can’t change anything without knowing what we’re working with.
So your first step towards financial independence is sitting down and reviewing your income and expenses. Important note here: do this without judging yourself! There’s no point to being angry about money already spent. Focus on getting the data and then we’ll make changes moving forward.
You can use a free budgeting app like Empower to pull all your financial information from your bank, credit cards, student loan lenders, and even your mortgage lender.
This will give you a bird’s eye view of your money. The next step is to highlight areas of overspending and make a new savings plan.
We have a guide on how to create a savings strategy right here. Having a plan for your money is the key to reaching financial freedom for yourself.
Step 2. Pay Off High-Interest Debt
Debt keeps you trapped to both your job AND the people you owe the debt to. Becoming financially free means paying off debt, starting with your high-interest debt.
I define high-interest debt as anything with an interest rate above 4%. Paying off your highest-interest debt first saves the most money (by paying the least amount of interest!)
Budgeting and financial reviews will help you find the details associated with each debt. Look for the interest rate, monthly minimum payment, and when each payment is due.
Step 3. Invest For Your Future Self
Investing is gifting your future self money. And it’s turning the money you have today into more money!
The best account to start with is an IRA. That stands for Individual Retirement Account and it means you’re investing for your retirement. Anyone 18+ with taxable income can open an IRA, and you don’t have to be a US citizen to invest!
We have a guide here to investing 101 that includes a step by step tutorial to opening an IRA.
The hardest thing about reaching total financial freedom is being consistent year after year. Consistency is hard for humans!
Celebrate milestones as you go. When you pay off your student loans, have a party with close friends. Celebrate your first $10,000 invested with a fancy dinner out. Make money fun and you’ll stay consistent!
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