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I've been a life-long conservative, but I'm so sick of hearing about profits, stock prices, return on investment, wall street and greed. Where does the average middle class guy fit into all of this?
It seems like were headed on the road to having major corporations run this land; perhaps they already do, just not so blatantly as they do in China.
Bolding mine.
YES, this country has become The United Corporations of America.
"We the CEOs , for the rich, by the rich."
How's it workin' for ya?
Some will come in and say it's working fine stocks are up and they are making money...and that's ALL that counts. It's a horribly short-sighted attitude that has been sending the U.S. on the road to Third World status.......the ultra rich, the unbelievably poor and NOTHING in between.
There was a time in history when corporations and businesses were good for our nation but that has changed. Corporations with their lobbyists and influence in Washington have changed this government into a fascist’s one. The government is controlled by corporations and big business instead of the people. Corporate welfare is the highest ever on your tax dollar. Corporations seem to always be rightwing conservatives; and recently it was found that 68% ~ 2/3rds of them don’t pay taxes! Guess they are doing something right if they can continue to get away with all this and more!
That is exactly what we will not be getting. The politicians are too deep in the pockets of "special interest groups" and corporations, until we wake up and quit voting for corporate mouthpieces, we will continue down this path. It's all big talk and in the end it is more of the same. Globalization has turned out be exactly what many predicted, a race to the bottom.
People are conditioned to respond to buzz-words and symbols. They do not really think for themselves, which is why a politician, to be successful in the US, appeals to emotions and a facade of patriotism and now religion. It helps if you adapt a 'folksy' attitude, too. Perish the thought that you should appear to be intellectual or elite.
Appealing to logic, trying to explain finances and economics, pretty much will lose the race. That's also why dirty campaigns tend to do well. Another show on tv for the folks.
The parties know the formula for winning.
If there are some decent politicians with their hearts in the right place, and I think there are some, it is extraordinarily hard to win an election without taking corporate funds. They frequently get into office and do directly the opposite of what they said while campaigning, and they just tell us that they did not know the whole situation until they landed in office. Remember, 'no new taxes'?
So I think at lease half of the bulk of the public is controllable, pretty much. They will not vote for a 'new' party.
The only way I can see out of this is campaign financing reform. No contributions at all. Now, we will still see politicians getting jobs from big
corps when they leave office, but first things first.
We can make campaigns shorter, mostly through media debating, which stations can contribute to as part of the privilege for use of the public airwaves. Maybe a C-Span function? So at least candidates, local and national, are released from corporations and can think seriously about how to serve our citizens, which they should have been doing all along.
I think the following would be a hard thing to do, because we would be
changing laws, but I believe they should be up for recall every two years. So, if they campaigned and got into office and did the opposite we would can them. If they are canned after two years, no pension or health coverage for life. Something the way corporations give an employee a six month trial period, our politicians would have to make it through an entire term to get onto the program.
I used to think a third party would do it, but look at the drug war.
Money corrupts.
There are entire countries whose economies are dependent on drugs, now.
Every (most) official is on the take.
Why do we think our politicians are not as greedy?
Why do we believe it is not happening here?
So the corruption of corporations will also affect a new party in a short time.
Power corrupts.
I think the secret is to break the link between corporations and government functioning, and not a new party.
Obama started by only accepting donations from people. His heart may be in the right place, but it is the entire system that has been corrupted by now. The FDA, if you believe it, is paid for in part by the drug companies.
"Last year, there was something of a revolt in several factories, after workers doing 50-hour shifts died of organ failures, the workers rose up and demanded some change. The government seemed, for a while, to be panicky, to be willing to give them some of their rights, even to let them have elected trade unions.
But American corporations, Microsoft, Nike, Ford, Dell, among others, working through the American Chamber of Commerce, threatened to take their business elsewhere if the Chinese government allowed these workers to organize."
Are we headed this way, too?
Should we bail out American auto makers, because they are asking for a taxpayer bailout again?
Does supporting huge corporations today end up stifling the competition and innovation of tomorrow?
Good lord people, think for yourselves. You need to stop believing everything you read.
Oh, make no mistake: The government runs things in China. Look back at that original post: Our corporations are threatening to leave China if workers there are allowed to organize. Our companies don't want China to democratize. With an iron-fisted Communist government in control of things, workers have no rights and can't petition for any rights. And that's how Ford, Nike, et al. want it. It keeps their labor dirt-cheap.
Agree, and I believe that this is the model corporations want for the USA. Minimal worker rights.
Well that is slowly happening here, no more pensions, little to no raises, job insecurity, increased medical costs by the employee.
And Obama says they get tax breaks, which means the out of work American taxpayer is helping to finance his own destruction.
I just heard about his plan, but it is to give breaks only to those creating jobs in the US, including small and startup businesses, who employ more people in this country than the mega-corps.
Of course we are headed to a world where return on stockholders investment is the ONLY measure of corporate success. This was taught to all our business leaders as an axiom in business schools 30 to 40 years ago. Our corporate leaders are only doing what they were taught. Profit is ALL they can consider.
The minor fact that this is short sighted, foolish, immoral and evil is easily discounted because these factors are not considered.
The exact same sentiment that was expressed by the American corporations that supported the Olympics when Human Rights Watch approched them asking that they atleast make a "statement" against China's human rights abuses. Their response? That's not our field of expertise.
I've been a life-long conservative, but I'm so sick of hearing about profits, stock prices, return on investment, wall street and greed. Where does the average middle class guy fit into all of this?
It seems like were headed on the road to having major corporations run this land; perhaps they already do, just not so blatantly as they do in China.
The avg guy fits into it by funding thru his 401k
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