[red-iron-pine]

Cash Rules Everything Around Me (CREAM; dollar dollar bill yall)

Or to put it another way, look at the list of F500 companies, esp. F100, and notice how many of them are in fields like healthcare, foods, and oil & gas (plastics being a way to utilize leftovers from petroleum refinement).

Lots of money means marketing & propaganda campaigns to sway public opinion, and a swayed public opinion leads to voting in politicians friendly to corporate views.

Friendly politicos then are able to sway regulations in favor of corporations. From there you get Regulatory Capture, where the regulators are often handpicked by the industry they're ostensibly supposed to regulate.