- Presenting tariff plans, insurance plans, deals 7 packages, any-kind-of-option in complex and opaque ways that use 'friendly' language, and pics of smiling people — so they can channel you towards whatever 'sounds' like a good deal.
- Changing the way the issue is discussed so the opinions form to 'prefer' what lobbyists favour (creationism, climate change, health-care, the wars, politicians)
- The entire PR and lobbying industry and everything it does.

And thats just the top of my head. — Did you seriously think you invented all the choices you made? You were shown pre-prepared points to discuss, and you just chose one. Not much freedom (or intelligence) in that.
Then they make people who think outside the norm seem like freaks, so you tend to ignore them, rather than discuss them. Try this for size: http://www.alternet.org/print/visions/chomsky-us-poses-number-threats-future-humanity-our-youll-never-hear-about-it-our-free-press

It means you don't know what you're talking about. Untwist your panties, and read the other comments that explain why this is ho-hum for the world, and news to you.

Lassi what the trolls come up with

Um. They do have the abililty to hire armed forces. Do you watch the news? Heard of Blackwater? Guns for hire - and what we see on the news is just the PR version. Who knows what else they do.

And if you go back in time a bit, the East India Company maintained a private ARMY to enforce its business on an entire sub-continent. This was before the invention of electricity, so by now corporations have many more tricks up their sleeve...like maybe just buying the government?

And the influence of corporate authoritarianism in your life doesn't end with a pink slip...where do you go when the company(s) owns the country? Ask native Africans the fun they've been having with giant global corporations in their countries.
You seem to have a very Norman Rockwell style rosy image of what a private company with power will and wont do.

I dont know about 'freedom of the world' - sounds a bit like cold war type hyperbole to me, but as for a company being a danger... I give you the East India Company.
This was a publicly traded European company that spectacularly looted an entire sub-continent for the benefit of its shareholders and employees personal profit, for nearly a hundred (yes, 100!) years before their greed caused a revolt in 1857, at which point the British government stepped in, and officially continued doing their good work for another hundred years.

if it hadn't been for a oh, a world war and its stress, and the fact that the locals were getting really upset again, it is doubtful they would have left India.

Colonialism was business and money first, not politics - and as an American (that i assume you are) you too should know that, no?

This is accurate, for professionals and Middle-class indians and up...as you go down the (very long) class and economic ladder in India it is less true. Basically if you want to work at even a basic national level or even a govt job, you need some grasp of English, of which again there are hugely varying levels of proficiency...

It is held true that better english = better job opportunities...

On a side note there is huge snob value associated with English speaking.

And then theres the power dynamics. Parents will often scold children in English, while using their regional language (depending on which part of india they are in) for general use and playtime...

Christopher Columbus would laugh at you. As an Indian, living in India, I have to say, Westerners blindness to their own history is staggering. It is only when one is rich that you can have this causal attitude that poor people should always be aware of (and be reminded of) their poverty, and ACT as if they are poor. As if their poverty is their whole identity. I agree there is poverty in India, but there are many not-so-poor people in India as well. The population of the middle-class (that thing you seem to be losing in America) in India equals the ENTIRE population of Europe. Are you suggesting their life goal should be to become social workers? I have another suggestion for you: why dont you go back in time and tell Columbus that instead of trying to find funding from the Queen of Spain - no one else had money - for a crazy trip OVER the edge of the world (who does that?) - he should instead spend the money on fixing European poverty in the 15th century. There was a lot of it. Look it up. Then tell English industrialists in the 18th, to not fund inventions but spend the money instead on improving the lives of their mill-workers living and working in filthy conditions first. As a smart fellow, you might have read some classic English literature about that? In the 15th Century, India's immense wealth and trading goods were the reason that Columbus left Europe in the first place, looking for a sea trading route to India. Disappointingly for him, he found America instead (they didnt call them 'Red INDIANS' just because they liked the sound of it). Then the west carried on to India anyway, and we know how that went. At least, I hope you do. We wont forget. India went from 1/5th of the world economy in the 17th century to impoverished state in 200 years, as a colony. It was no accident - its why the British came in the first place. You may have heard of the cycle of poverty? - you seem to have it in your own American inner-cities too, from what i hear. That in 2010, American politicians are still campaigning with messages like "we want to make sure a retired grandma doesn't have to choose between buying her medicine and dinner" is frightening and appalling for those of us who admire Amrerica. So much for the free market 'decides'. Even among the poor in India, grandma lives with and is taken care of by her kids, and govt healthcare is free. Private healthcare is a choice, if you can afford it. And our Doctors and dentists do very well. You can keep your kind, if ignorant, suggestions about India. I'll see you on the Moon. That is, if the Chinese will let either of us land.