What companies are you investing in to fund your retirement?

In a Corporatocracy, you really do vote with your dollars, and that is all that counts. We are there. This is the new reality... corporations have power and control, and our government is just a broker for their interests, facilitating our consensus of this control by keeping We the People uninformed, and thinking that we still have power to vote for someone who can make a real difference. You see anyone making a difference these days? If they try, they are marginalized. Called "socialists" or some such ridiculous accusations designed to keep us thinking all is as it was, so this Corporate governance can continue status quo. We are a frog in a pot of water... and we are in hot water... Many people know this... yet feel kind of helpless, not really fully able to grasp the true nature of the problem we face. Don't we need corporations to provide things for us? Well, to some extent, yes we do... but we don't need to have huge corporations that pay a select few in their ranks tens of millions of dollars a year, while their employees at the bottom rungs, oftentimes in a 3rd world country, are making $2. a week...
And we don't need them to have government subsidies (the government gives them our tax dollars)... only to have them "tax exempt", as you are hearing in the news lately about GE and others. There is a group who is monitoring and protesting the government's allowing these corporations to get away without paying taxes called US Uncut.

There are more groups protesting the state of things than you can shake a stick at.... Environmental issues, Food Safety issues, Gay rights issues... Lots of people have issues.... and there are a lot of people talking the talk these days, but they may only know half the story.

If you're interested in knowing how America is ever going to find her way out of this Corporatocracy that the Republicans have built, start with looking at any investments you might have in companies to which you might not want to lend your support...
Do some resarch to be sure you're investing is ethical.
Stocks in many of the largest companies are spread piecemeal throughout mutual funds and investment packages.

Stocks like Haliburton, Monsanto, NewsCorp.

Anyone can invest directly in any publicly traded companies. And you can investigate these businesses for yourself, and choose with some conscious awareness. This article in the Vancouver Sun is a brief description of how and why ethical investments are becoming more important to more people...

The Internet is a great tool to discover if the companies have any shady issues that you don't wish to support. Of course their OWN websites will tell you all the good news, so it's best to do some general searching, digging into past news articles, and others' accounts of their business dealings.
Once you find solid companies you feel good about loaning your money to, then it's easy enough to e-mail them from their websites, or give a call and ask for their investment department to send you the forms needed. Some companies have minimum initial investments, normally $500., but many do not. If you use a service like Sharebuilder, or E-trade, the minimums required may not be an issue since investments are pooled by the service.

If you are a business owner, you can have an employee from your business help you learn to do this, or to have them do this on your behalf, and some types of business structures (corporations) are able to invest in other companies' shares.

It may seem daunting to learn about investing, when it should be as common knowledge as having a checking and savings account. Certainly it's much easier to have money taken automatically from your paycheck each week and sent into to some mysterious "mutual funds" to directly fund various and insidious corporate interests, who will do what they like with your money without checking with you first (unless you're William Buffet). This strategy makes you an investment zombie. The corporate world's favorite type of person.... right next to the zombie voter.

Your company gives you the information about your retirement, but it's a lot of booklets with a lot of small print and a lot of financial mumbo jumbo, designed to put a zombie curse on you if you should dare read it. True story.

If you're worried about corporate interests trumping those of "We The People" in America, then do NOT mindlessly send your hard earned money to the very corporations you complain about.

Last time I checked, this makes you a hypocrite.

It's no different for the products you buy (or boycott)...
Here's an illustration from 2008 put together by Phil Howard, an assistant professor of Community, Agriculture, and Recreation and Resource studies at Michigan State University. This gives you an idea of the cluster-fuck of health food labels that you may not realize are under a corporate umbrella you aren't willing to support (knowingly)...

So what can be done? Well,I don't use Wikipedia much, it's too unreliable... (always look at the references and the discussion portion of wikipedia entries!) but there are some good resources referenced here...
Consider it a starting point
to learn more about the local food movement.

The worst thing you can do?? Is to sit around complaining and feeling helpless!!