There are over 30 million companies in America.
America has a population of 307, 006, 550
So this means 10% of America is made up of businesses and corporations. Leaving 90% that are not.
This seems very practical. Before looking it up, I figured the percentage would be much higher, at least half at 50%.
So while this would be more relevant to a debate about job growth and/or consumer demand in America, it doesn't resonate to a corporate takeover. 90% is a clear majority over 10%, right? If you stop right here and shut off all other thought regarding the subject, you may feel that you actually have control over your country and that the theory of a corporate takeover is all just a paranoid liberal myth.
But there's one problem, we aren't stopping there.
This whole shindig doesn't work as a "majority takes all" type of situation, this works more like apartheid, or even better, an Oligarchy and/or a Plutocracy .
If you don't believe me, don't take my word for it. Just ask one of the biggest corporations in the world, Citibank. A few years back, a leaked memo from Citibank revealed the company contemplating ways they could form America into an actual Plutocracy, an economy that is driven by and solely benefits the wealthy. Also how they could succeed in this goal if they could keep the rest of us off their backs and "in the dark" about the whole thing.
The memo revealed that one of Citibank's biggest concerns is the fact that there is still one vote per person, and that we outnumber them. They feared a possible backlash if we were to catch onto them.
These are not Bond Villains. These are real people and they have an abundance of power in this country. This is how some of them think of you, as peasants. A distraction and roadblock to them making more money. Not a human life equal to theirs in the realm of the universe. This is what blind greed does to people. it turns them into monsters.
What bothers me the most, is that they are in fact getting closer and closer to this goal of a Plutocracy every day.
Right now, 400 Americans have more wealth than half of ALL Americans combined.
400 People have more wealth than over 150 million people combined.
And even though they made all that money, the wealth has never trickled down. In fact, wages for workers have been virtually frozen for 30 years. You've seen your benefits cut and/or eroded. Many of you even lost your job when your company was bringing in record profits. Now you are on UI or welfare benefits that you've paid into your entire working life, and now the GOP™ are saying you don't deserve that either. They say that you, the workers who move this country everyday, the ones who live paycheck to paycheck, that you are bankrupting this country while they give the CEO that sent your job to China another tax cut he doesn't need.
This is no accident. This has been the plan since Ronald Reagan™ took office. To hand the country's wealth and governing powers to it's major corporations and use the majority of citizens as yet another resource to expand profits. We are not citizens, but consumers.
And even though you are an overwhelming majority, you have about half of this majority that supports the corporate agenda via the GOP™, Corporate America's very own political party. While the rest either don't care because they are not taught to care or are too distracted to care, and the rest of us who are aware cannot afford to lobby a member of congress or buy a political party. So we protest, write, and organize, but in America , money talks the loudest. However, with growing knowledge of what's going on, we are starting to get pretty loud as well.
The GOP™ has been telling us for years that if we just redistribute all the money upwards to the wealthiest Americans, it will better our lives because that wealth will "trickle down" and job creators will create jobs when relieved of the burden of having government put rules and taxes on them like they do everyone else.
So let's look at the impact of modern conservatism's full submersion into corporatism over the past 30 years.....
Corporations control most of our health care. As a result...
45,000 Americans die every year from lack of healthcare.
Out of 193 Countries, the United States ranks #38 in life expectancy.
The World Health Organization Ranks America #37 in health care Worldwide.
Health care costs more in America than anywhere else in the world.
9 million American Children lack health care
The United States is the only industrialized country in the world without a universal health care system.
Corporations make most of our food. As a result...
The United States is the most obese country on Earth.
America has the highest rate of diabetes in the world.
The U.S. has the 7th highest cancer rate in the world.
Corporate Farms that produce concentrated, preservative-loaded food and run local organic family farmers out of business.
French Fries are now the most eaten "vegetable" among America's toddlers and preschoolers.
Fast Food is killing us.
Corporations have gained control over our prison system by building private for-profit prisons all over America since the 1980's. As a result...
America has more people behind bars than any other country with prison population rates rising steadily every year.
Private prisons cost taxpayers more than public prisons.
There are more security breaches and escapes in private prisons due to cost cutting measures.
Corporations have taken control of our environment by fighting rules and regulations to allow them to use our environment as their own personal dump. As a result...
Our air, water, and soil is polluted.
Rate of birth defects has increased worldwide due to pollution.
Extinction of animal species has been on steady increase since 1900.
Corporations are responsible for almost all of the damage done to the environment.
I could go on and on, but you get the point.
When you govern based on greed and the sole desire to make more money over what is morally right, bad things happen. This is exactly why corporations should not govern. We are not against making money or having a competitive market. We just don't think a country should be run to get corporations rich, but to prosper and progress as an entire people.
A corporation's #1 goal and priority is to make more money than they did the year before. They feel that at the end of the day, almost any ends justifies the means. They do not feel obligated to improve your community, better your life, or secure you a good future. Their only concern is making money. They may smile and apologize from time to time, but they will do anything to make or save a few bucks. They feel they don't owe you anything because this is capitalism, where greed is legal and anything is fair game if it serves the profit motive. Corporations do not care about you.
This is why they want to get rid of government, because government does feel obligated to improve your community, better your life, and secure your future. Government, like anything else, is not always perfect, but to government we are citizens, to corporations we are consumers. I would rather my country be governed by it's government than a corporation.
As much as some don't want to admit it, corporations are not people and life is about so much more than money.
You are not your credit score. You are not your bank account. You are not your public record. You are not your contract. You are not the company you work for. You are a human being and someday you will die. Nothing will matter but the moments you experienced in this life.
I think someday human-kind will evolve out of holding the quanity of man-made currency against another human, and watching them suffer if they don't have enough of this material. Sadly, I don't think this is going to happen for a VERY long time.
So all we can do is fight back. Let's make Citibank's biggest fear a reality... let's revolt!
Very compelling argument, but not as relevant as it could be.
ReplyDeleteThe main reason why corporations are not equal to living human beings under U.S. law, is because within the Constitution there is no reference to any non human entities as having rights similar to or equal to the rights of "We the People."
Here is the Preamble to the United States Constitution, which is a brief introductory statement of the Constitution's fundamental purposes and guiding principles.
It states in general terms, and courts have referred to it as reliable evidence of, the Founding Fathers' intentions regarding the Constitution's meaning and what they hoped the Constitution would achieve:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
It was "We the People" only who had the legal authority to ordain and establish the Supreme Law of the Land. That is because "We the People" are the sovereignty of the U.S. There is no higher authority. Not the President, not Congress, not the Supreme Court, not the military, and certainly not corporations, organizations or other non living entities.
We don't need a Constitutional Amendment to disempower the corporations who now have greater rights than humans.
What we need to do is revisit the 1886 Supreme Court decision in which a court reporter illegally opened the door to corporate personhood.
But first we need to impeach and remove five Supreme Court Justices for behaving badly in office by legalizing corporate personhood and granting corporations greater rights than those of "We the People".
We also need to impeach and remove from office our elected representatives in the White House and Congress who have broken their oath to protect the Constitution. The recent four year extension of the unconstitutional U.S. Patriot Act is just one piece of evidence of their mutinous and treasonous behavior.
>> We don't need a Constitutional Amendment to disempower the corporations who now have greater rights than humans. <<
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I think it might be needed to have something on par with separation of Church and State that would keep the corporate world separate from the government, to keep the government from favoring any particular corporation, and keep corporate interests out of and away from public office.
it's simple. We need a constitional ammendment that bars:
ReplyDelete1. anyone but the candidates from advertising on the issues or in their name
2. The candidates from using anything but public financing.
and amends the first amendment with an equality clause, requiring impact of all speech based on how many people hear that speech potentially be measured and requiring that everyone is ENTITLED to reach the same ammount of ears, and no more than anyone else.
For all the information I consume and subsequent processing, I am unable to see a real solution that will not involve violence. History is cyclical...and I am patiently waiting for our own (factually dubious yet no less poignant) "Let them eat cake" moment. Buy a gun...learn how to defend yourself. A smart person once said, "Hope for the best and prepare for the worst". Best wishes for your survival.
ReplyDeleteFamily must be protected as a living entity from corporations. Government is a living entity in which every citizen participates. Government should be protected from the influence of any individual, group, corporation, church or family.
ReplyDeleteThe main difference between the church and the corporation is that one is concerned with morality and the other with money, but neither is obligated to uphold morality.
The Constitution sets the guidelines that every living entity should follow, the fundamental law of these United States meant to safeguard the rights of the living.
No individual, entity or group must be allowed to act outside the law.
For the sake of peace and unity of our nation, it is time to amend the Constitution. I don't see reason to debate this, but then again I'm not in control of billions of dollars.