November 2003

The maggots of transnational corporations have successfully devoured the guts from what was once thought of as business in this country. At the core of this corporate feeding frenzy, is nothing less than the American way of life. How else to explain the 7.2 percent growth in profits, created by an 11.1 percent increase in corporate spending; while at the same time managing to lose 43,000 jobs.
http://abcnews.go.com/

When societies first came together to form themselves into nations, they did so out of a basic concern for the welfare of the people of their own nations. These societies, expected that their business interests would enrich the lives of the citizens of their own countries first – before adding to the GNP of other nations. That after all, was part of why they had chosen to live and work together, for their common good. In this, the United States was not much different from other nations.

Then in 1886, a Supreme Court decision freed American corporations from individual responsibility for their actions and became the basis for our two-tiered system of both law and life. And from that day forward, Americans have been losing their rights and their freedoms to corporations at a staggering rate.

Corporations it seems enjoy all the benefits of being a person, without any of the responsibilities that ordinary citizens must answer for. This is one of the reasons it is so difficult to charge a corporation or any of its officers with crimes of any kind. And since it is primarily multi-national corporations that have been the leading beneficiaries of this generosity – it is they who are leading the way off-shore with their profits, while continuing to directly benefit from all the tax shelters and credits they took from the country and the people they employed, in order to create themselves in the fist place.

Now that they are able to outsource their workforces to overseas locations without paying any penalties for the re-allocation of jobs – these businesses have absolutely no responsibility to all those Americans they have fired, in order to super-size their profits. "This is the future!" they proudly proclaim, and "It may be cold and hard, but that’s the reality" said an industry spokesperson on ABC news. That’s how we can have 7.2 percent profit growth with job losses continuing to hemorrhage like blood from a slashed artery.

Something like 71% of all Americans believe that there is no booming economy – and that without job growth this is all just more verbal manipulation. But those people would be wrong. There is a boom – among the only people who apparently matter – the filthy rich. The rest of us just need to have the decency to disappear, preferably without making too much noise about it.

Technology and its wonders are what have made this new economy possible. But these innovations are part of life and they are here to stay. What we could change about this situation is that we could force these corporations to pay a stiff penalty for their business practices, in the same way that we regulate other things that the government says it doesn’t like.

WE could for instance revoke their corporate license to do business in the United States, if they are found to be doing business in other nations simply to avoid US laws, and US taxes, in any way.

We could also regulate the salaries of all those executives whose salaries and compensation together is more than 1000 times that of their lowest paid worker. They could make as much money as they like – but they would face a review board much like the one that is supposed to oversee the stock market. If super-scrutiny is the lot of the extremely poor and middle-income groups in America, it should also be the lot of the elite as well. (If we can make the life of waiters and cab drivers a living hell – we should offer the same treatment to all our better-off leaders as well).

In the interim, between now and implementation of regulations, all their assets over one billion dollars should be frozen. Something like this might just encourage some of these modern day pirates to reconsider their corporate positions in the business world.

Part of their argument for not taking such draconian measures, will no doubt be that these companies and high-rollers will leave the country and take their business with them! Fantastic – as they have already left, in everything but name. The only reason they pretend to still be American, is for the continued corporate welfare that they all still draw, despite the fact that the largest pay no taxes, yet still have all the perks of any transnational business presence, when it comes to preferences and associations.

These corporations need to become American again in their facilities, in their workforce, and in reality. If not: then the government should seize everything after freezing the assets of their officers as well, who should all be immediately deported, just as we would treat any other criminal group or organization.

The time has come to get tough with these NEW economy privateers. They cannot be allowed to have it all, either they are American corporations, living here and sharing that profit with those who make their profits possible - or they must register as foreign companies, and clearly print that statement on everything of theirs. Because the NEW economics of obscene profits with permanent and continuing job losses, is just not a viable way to run a country – especially not one that has given so much to the creation of these now transnational giants.

So when will such a proposal be introduced in congress? Who among the current crop of presidential candidates will be the first to suggest this kind of return to reality? Not very likely is it. I guess the handwriting was on the wall when we first dropped the word ‘citizen’ from various groups and began calling ourselves ‘consumers.’ Now we claim to be a consumer society, even after we watched all our manufacturing jobs disappear. So what should we call ourselves now, when more and more of us find ourselves without a job (without an income) in a consumer society?

We can fight this thing together, as we once built this nation – together as a people. Or we can die quietly, one by one, by one – just like the anonymous troops serving in Iraq.

Only their families mourn those who died and those who will live on in pain and suffering: but you can be sure the government has already written them off.
SICK SOLDIERS STILL WAITING FOR TREATMENT

I suspect the same is true of the jobless; we’re already gone in the minds of the insiders – the new leaders of the rich - in The New WAR Upon the Unemployed.

kirwan

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