Are we living in a Corporatocracy?

I've been watching Redacted Tonight a lot of late and not only is it humorous - it's not popular enough at the moment for it to be censored or compromised - I think.
"Interesting times we are living in. Interesting times."

I do not suffer from the odious affliction of thinking that I know everything. There is so much going on in the world and we only see a sliver of it. The rise of the Corporatocracy, however, I have been witnessing throughout my 40 some odd years. In the early 90's I worked in a restaurant. Come payday, I would simply walk my paycheck over to the bank it was written from and cash it. No problem. Have I.D. the check is made out to me, from an account at this bank. Bing, bang, boom.

Then one day they told me that they couldn't cash it unless I had an account with them. A whole bunch of us were very angry and we even took the issue to the police - funny that. I bet you can guess. They laughed at us.

This can seems like a simple and understandable banking development of good practices. However, when you look at it from an NSA / Corporatocracy type of perspective, well things get a lot more interesting.

As I mentioned, this was back in the early 90's. Things seem to have become more and more restrictive since. You may have some similar experiences. If so, please share. In the meantime, take a look at Redacted Tonight's Interview of Chris Hedges: