We live in interesting times. The global economy is splintering. U.S. voters hate all politicians and there's political unrest throughout the world. The root cause of this turmoil is the failure of the dominant economic paradigm -- global corporate capitalism.
The modern world is ruled by multinational corporations and governed by a capitalistic ideology that believes: Corporations are a special breed of people, motivated solely by self-interest. Corporations seek to maximize return on capital by leveraging productivity and paying the least possible amount for taxes and labor. Corporate executives pledge allegiance to their directors and shareholders. The dominant corporate perspective is short term, the current financial quarter, and the dominant corporate ethic is greed, doing whatever it takes to maximize profit.
Five factors are responsible for the failure of global corporate capitalism. First, global corporations are too big. We're living in the age of corporate dinosaurs. (The largest multinational is JP Morgan Chase with assets of $2 Trillion, 240,000 employees, and offices in 100 countries.) The original dinosaurs perished because their huge bodies possessed tiny brains. Modern dinosaurs are failing because their massive bureaucracies possess miniscule hearts.
Since the Reagan era global corporations have followed the path of least resistance to profit; they've swallowed up their competitors and created monopolies, which have produced humongous bureaucracies. In the short-term, scale helps corporations grow profitable, but in the long-term it makes them inflexible and difficult to manage. Gigantism creates a culture where workers are encouraged to take enormous risks in order to create greater profits; it's based upon the notion that the corporation is "too big to fail."
Second, global corporations disdain civil society. They've created a culture of organizational narcissism, where workers pledge allegiance to the enterprise. Corporate employees live in a bubble, where they log obscene hours and then vacation with their co-workers. Multinationals develop their own code of ethics and worldview separate from that of any national state. Corporate executives don't care about the success or failure of any particular country, only the growth and profitability of their global corporation. (Many large corporations pay no U.S. income tax; in 2009 Exxon Mobil actually got a $156 M rebate.)
Third, global corporations are modern outlaws, living outside the law. There is no invisible hand that regulates multinationals. In 1759 Philosopher Adam Smith argued that while wealthy individuals and corporations were motivated by self interest, an "invisible hand" was operating in the background ensuring that capitalist activities ultimately benefited society. In modern times this concept became the basis for the pronouncements of the Chicago School of Economics that markets were inherently self regulating. However, the last five years have demonstrated that there is no "invisible hand" -- unregulated markets have spelled disaster for the average person. The "recovery" of 2009-10 ensured that "too big to fail" institutions would survive and the rich would continue to be rich. Meanwhile millions of good jobs were either eliminated or replaced by low-wage jobs with poor or no benefits.
Fourth, global corporations are ruining our natural capital. Four of the top 10 multinational corporations are energy companies, with Exxon Mobil leading the list. But there are many indications that our oil reserves are gone. Meanwhile, other forms of natural capital have been depleted -- arable land, water, minerals, forests, fish, and so forth. Multinational corporations have treated the environment as a free resource. When the timberlands of North America began to be depleted, lumber corporations moved to South America and then Asia. Now, the "easy pickings" are gone. Global corporations have ravished the world and citizens of every nation live with the consequences: dirty air, foul water, and pollution of every sort.
Fifth, global corporations have angered the world community. The world GDP is $63 Trillion but multinational corporations garner a disproportionate share -- with banks accounting for an estimated $4 trillion (bank assets are $100 trillion). Global black markets make $2 trillion -- illegal drugs account for at least $300 billion. In many parts of the world, a worker is not able to earn a living wage, have a bank account or drive a car, but can always obtain drugs, sex, and weapons. And while the world may not be one big village in terms of lifestyle, it shares an image of "the good life" that's proffered in movies, TV, and the Internet. That's what teenagers in Afghanistan have in common with teenagers in England; they've been fed the same image of success in the global community and they know it's inaccessible. They are angry and, ultimately, their anger has the same target -- multinational corporations (and the governments that support them).
We live in interesting times. The good news is we're witnessing the failure of global corporate capitalism. The bad news is we don't know what will replace it.
Dave Murphy: Politics, Farmers And Change: The End Of Rural America
William Lazonick: The Global Tax Dodgers: Why President Obama and Congress Lack Job Creation Plans
Otaviano Canuto: Credit Ratings Matter for Those Who Need Them Most
Has Capitalism Failed? by Ron Paul
Laissez-Faire Capitalism Has Failed - Forbes.com
Michael Moore: Capitalism has proven it's failed - CNN
2. Tax the rich another 10%
3. Tax corporations another 10% but allow a tax credit for each and every American they hire to work in America up to and including all of the 10% tax increase. ( must be verifiable and abusers will be sent to prison.)
4. Make corporations accountable to the American people and not to Wall Street. Corporations to be owned by employees with no stock available to anyone.
5. Have congress coin new $ 1000 platinum coins and pay off the debt with them.
6. Abolish the FED.
7. Fully fund the consumer protection agency with Elizabeth Warren at the helm.
Now there is a cry for regulation again but but this to is not a black and white issue not an either or situation.
Consumers should expect to receive what they pay for and there should be enough enforcement of the law to make sure they do.
Corporations should be held accountable if their actions cause damage, destruction, property loss, personal injury, etc. A Corporate personhood can be sued in court for manslaughter but they seldom are. The DA looks the other way, favors the corporations to protect the money interests and jobs.
Regulation has often been enacted in such a way that it allows some to profit and others to lose, which should not be the goal of regulation. Regulation should be enacted to protect consumers and prevent damage.
The 1996 Telecommunications act required telephone operating companies to build out their network, foot the bill, and then sell services at a loss to unregulated venders who would resell those same services at a discount to consumers- something the regulated phone companies could not do. Regulated phone companies file a tarriff with the PUC and are held to the terms and conditions of the tariff.
Plutocrats hiding behind and operating through corporations and banks is no more an argument against corporations and banks than those pikers the Mafia hiding behind and operating through Italian restaurants is an argument against Italian restaurants.
This has been a public service announcement...
Eliminate "Investment Banks".
Imprison at least 4,000 people.
Send out a 10,000 dollar check to every man woman and child in this nation.
Make orphanages out of the Mansions in Bel-air.
Nationalize healthcare.
Eliminate the DOD.
Tax all income over 1 million at 100%.
That'll do for now.
He also taught that for a nation to build wealth, it must produce what it needs domestically and not import them.
When exporting production and jobs leads to maximized corporate profits, then corporate values will no longer be national values.
http://rjw-progressive.blogspot.com/2011/06/economic-wrong-turn.html
Of the world's 100 largest economic entities, 51 are now corporations and 49 are countries. But corporations do not have the good of the public as their interest, but only the good of their wealthy shareholders. When these economic giants pursue the good of the few, they of do so at the detriment of the many.
http://www.corporations.org/system/top100.html
We (or the Paulson, Geithner, Bernanke, Bush then Obama) created a hybrid that cannot work, socializing to tax payers the financial shortfalls of the banksters. Who ever heard of declaring a wild investment bank a commercial bank to borrow from the Fed - and bail out an insurance (like insuring neighbor's house) company so it could pay an investment bank that sold faulty financial products and bet against them!
Hope that ranty sentence is long enough.
You skipped out on a previous thread, without sharing your superb education with us.
The economic system is nothing but greed gone wild.
Gary Brumback
www.democracypowernow.com
@LibertyQuotient
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism