If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Conversations with God spoke many years ago of humans living life in total transparency, and it said that this would be the chosen and preferred lifes...
The easy question is, whether or not trading privacy for government (and corporate) transparency make society physically safer. The difficult and infinitely more important question is, can democracy still thrive without personal privacy and institutional secrecy?
There are two great centers of unaccountable power in the American political-economic system today -- places where decisions that significantly affect large numbers of Americans are made in secret, and are unchecked either by effective democratic oversight or by market competition.
What, to Mr. Froman, constitutes a "bad agreement?" And what, to Mr. Froman, is "fair" trade?
The IRS is seriously and dangerously broken. This is not only unfair to the many dedicated public servants at the IRS; it's unfair to all of us. Get to the truth. Arbitrarily punishing the IRS isn't going to help any more than blindly defending the agency.
The US is gearing up to join a multinational movement for transparency in extractive industries, that offers bold and flexible powers for open, democratic public debate about extractive industries, in order to achieve goals of sustainable development, poverty reduction, and public accountability.
Equally, if not more, disturbing, is that other than the investigation of this handful of groups, the IRS hasn't actually taken the steps needed to ensure that sham non-profits are not abusing the tax code to flood our elections with secret money.
There is little doubt that the IRS' approach to determining whether to grant tax-exempt status should be politically even-handed, without regard to partisan affiliation. But this kerfuffle is merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
We are passing our bad habits down to our kids. They see us spend but not save, pay bills or give to charity. You have to get your child involved in all of it. The only way to get money is to earn it. Make sure your handling of money is visible and simple for them to understand.
The bottom line is, people are not willing to be cuckold again, and so they are very, very reluctant to trust, particularly those same companies that hurt them. One can hardly blame them (us). So here's my prescription for restoring a healthy relationship between businesses and the public.
What has happened in Bangladesh could happen in many other countries that enable powerful politicians and their business cronies to act all too often as if they are above the law.
In American politics, the rigorous subjecting of political statements to fact-checking is a relatively recent phenomenon. Promoting accountability is never an easy task, particularly in countries just emerging from authoritarianism.
D.C. Council corruption -- legal and illegal -- is endemic. Rare candidates like Elissa Silverman are the antidote. A win by her will show other candidates, black and white, that they can win without the influence of landed wealth and conflicts of interest,
The repatriation of $28.8 million of Ben Ali's stolen assets is a victory for the people of Tunisia. Now, let's try to keep it there.
"Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their government is doing," Obama declared when he first took office in 2009. "My administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use." By almost any measure, that has not happened.
Health care is the only product or service we purchase without any idea of the price. Often, you don't even know your portion of the price. But would knowing prices up front make any difference in our behavior?
About Transparency
This page in partnership with the fabulous folks at the Sunlight Foundation. Learn more and join the fight for a more transparent, accountable government at Sunlight's web site.
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