The third and final symptom of the collapse of American capitalism is the main subject of this essay: promo.
Call it “promotion,” “marketing,” “advertising,” “public relations” or what you will. It’s the process and the technique of persuading people—be they customers or voters—to want, buy and do things they otherwise wouldn’t want, buy or do. In the social and political sphere, it’s better known as “propaganda,” but it’s basically the same thing.
Viewed honestly, it’s the art and science of getting people to believe things that just aren’t so and thus to do things not in their own interest, but in the “information” providers’ business, financial, political, personal, or practical interest. It’s the modern art of public deception and persuasion in all its forms.
The first thing to know about promo is that, in most cases, it involves no direct benefit or any efficiency gain. The dismal presidency of Donald Trump is both a product and an extreme exemplar of promo. Take, for example, the informal name of his recently prized legislative achievement: “The One Big Beautiful Bill.” What does it do? The promo name suggests that it does everything necessary all at once. It’s like the title of that manic hit movie “Everything, Everywhere All at Once.” Even the bill’s staid, formal title provides no further information. It’s “An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14.”
In fact, the bill lowers taxes on the rich and reduces government regulation, thus moving us back toward the over-the-top, unrestrained capitalism that produced the Robber Barons and led to the First Gilded Age and the Great Depression. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill will, by 2034, increase the national deficit by $2.8 trillion while raising incomes of the highest 10% of earners by 2.7%, due mainly due to tax cuts, and lowering incomes of the lowest 10% by 3.1%. So it would rob the poor to make the rich richer, while vastly increasing an already swollen national debt. With an effect like that, it makes good sense to have a promo title that sounds good but conveys no real meaning.