CommonDreams: Changing the Corporation

[marmar]

Published on Thursday, August 20, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Changing the Corporation
by Robert C. Hinkley


The corporation is no more than an aggregation of capital managed for the proportional benefit of those who supply it. It is a system controlled by managers, administrators and clerks largely for the benefit of passive investors looking for a higher return than they can earn elsewhere.

It makes no sense that government should provide the very wealthy with a tool that poses a continuous threat to the public interest. Government's job is to protect the public interest, not sponsor those that destroy it.

Doing nothing

In Common Sense Thomas Paine from argued for a change of government, but what he said 232 years ago has application today.

The current situation has become intolerable. Governments now stand by while modern corporations destroy. Governments are responsible for creating the modern corporation. Citizens are responsible for creating government. We have furnished the means through which the destruction is conducted. In the words of Paine, "our calamities (are) heightened."

This problem is not getting fixed. Indeed it is getting worse. As each year passes, more communities are destroyed, human rights are violated and millions die. Corporate induced climate change now threatens all six and one-half billion inhabitants on this planet.

If nothing is done, the catastrophic effects predicted of global warming will become a reality. Pollution and human rights abuse will continue to move around the globe as governments in one jurisdiction pass laws and governments in others do not. Employees and our communities will continue to be threatened by globalization. New problems will take their place among those left unsolved as even newer technologies are developed and government finds it impossible to keep up. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/20-5

[marmar]

1. shameless selfkick

:kick:

[CrispyQ]

2. The power & influence of the corporate behemoths is one of the critical issues today,

& we can't get this article on the Greatest page? :wtf:

[loudsue]

3. Corporate programmed voting machines. Corporate media.

Corporations today are THE major threat to our democracy. The legislators SHOULD be pushing to regulate these abuses. Instead, it's a circular financing scheme: The government hires corporations with tax dollars; the corporations pay these tax dollars in profit to government-owned senators and representatives, rehiring them to, once again, give tax dollars back to corporations.

This whole health care debate is the same for the dems as the Iraq war was profitable for the republicans.

I just wonder if it isn't going to take another labor revolution.

[OneBlueSky]

4. well, at least there's someone addressing the REAL problem in this country . . .

which is corporate abuse of the planet, the nation, the environment, the economy, the military, healthcare, education, agriculture, commerce, and just about every other aspect of American life . . .

the solution to fundamental problems in each of these areas is the same -- reign in the power of the corporation . . . until rampant amoral corporatism is recognized as THE problem and treated as such, it will be impossible to institute REAL change in any area of our national life . . . not healthcare, not war and peace, not environmental destruction, not the economy, not anything . . .

there ARE some people who are addressing the real problem and trying to stimulate discussion of corporate abuses and what might be done to curtail them . . . one such group is . . .

ReclaimDemocracy.org -- Restoring Citizen Authority Over Corporations
http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/

disclaimer: I have no connection to this group; I just like what they're trying to do . . .

so whenever you're involved in a discussion about any public policy issue or problem, look first to the corporations in charge to discover the source of the problem(s) . . . then formulate your position based on the knowledge that behind all of our major difficulties are corporate profits and the need to continually increase them . . . the solution to virtually every major problem lies in removing (or at least tightly controlling) the offending corporation(s) . . .

everything else is just window dressing . . .