Forum Post: 200 Years to Get US Individual Rights & Corporations Already Existed, USA Progressed up to 1970

The Point is Know your Rights or Lose them. History isn't Linear. We don't progress as a Society in a Linear fashion. Anthropology shows that many countries or empires had 1) Writing 2) Technology 3) Laws 4) Trade 5) Power 6) Military Might 7) Civil Rights 8) Progressive Ideas ... and they lost it all.

And now we get a congressman kissing Jamie Dimon's Ass on TV. We get "Talking Heads" that act smart on TV, but hide the Real Processes of Government and the Corruption of Money. We get Politicians saying "It is all about Progress" and "Times Have Changed". -Well the US is not progressing on Linear Time Line. There is no American Exceptionalism or a Time when as George W. Bush said we are "Above the Law".

The USA Progressed up to 1970 with Labor Safety Law. BUT NOW We ARE GOING DOWN HILL.

So You Can Say that there Was Indeed a Backlash from Corporations from 1970 where they saw the Rise of Union Strength, Rise of Labor Safety Expenses, Rise in Employee Benefits, and a common fight for Neoliberal Economic Policies to be carried out by extensive Lobbying, influence of the Universities and Text Books, and Regulatory Capture secured through Revolving Door Employment (hiring government employees and getting bankers posted to the Treasury, FED, Federal Reserve Board, New York FED, SEC, OTS, OCC, FDIC, and OMB)

History shows a KING (or government) can push people with Taxes PRETTY FAR. And obviously pretty far with LOBBYING and Conflict of Interest, and Monopolies, and 15% Carried Interest Tax Rate (income tax for Mitt Romney)*

It is hard to make my point without going into the Reasons for the US Bill of Rights.

240 Years ago the British were engaged in an expensive "7 Years War" with the French and the Indians. They had to get the Money back by Taxing it's people. A Sovereign Debt Problem (like TODAY).

Time Line of Formation of the USA:

1) Proclamation of 1763
2) The Currency Act of 1764
3) The Quartering Act of 1765
4) The Stamp Act of 1765
5) The Declaratory Act of 1766
6) The Townshend Revenue Act of 1767
7) Boston Non-Importation Agreement of 1768
8) The Boston Massacre 1770,
9) The Gaspee Affair 1772,
10) The Tea Act of 1773, (Parliment action to help corporate profits for East India Company - Early Corporate Bail-Out)
11) The Boston Tea Party 1773,
12) Colonies were pressed with greater taxes without any representation in Britain 1774,
13) The First Continental Congress 1774,
14) The Rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes 1775,
15) Delegates begin to sign The Declaration of Independence 1776,
16) The United States and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Paris 1783,
17) U.S. Constitution signed 1787,
18) U.S. Constitution adopted, New Hampshire ratified 1788,
19) The Bill of Rights adopted 1789,
(It took additional Constitutional Amendments and numerous Supreme Court cases to extend the same rights to all U.S. citizens)
20) The National Labor Relations Act 1935 (NLRA, "Wagner Act") gives private sector workers the right to choose a Union.
21) Railway Labor Act, first passed in 1926, then amended in 1936 to cover airline employees.
22) The Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932 outlawed the issuance of injunctions in labor disputes by federal courts. Ended "government by injunction", in which the federal courts used injunctions to prevent unions from striking.
23) The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) establishes minimum wage and overtime rights for most private sector workers.
24) The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, creates specific standards for workplace safety.
25) Equal Pay Act of 1963 (Womens Rights),
26) The Civil Rights Act of 1964,
27) The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Black Voting Rights),

http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/revwartimeline.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights (First 10 Amendments)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_law_in_the_United_States

First Corporations and Corporate Monopolies list below were sometimes used for Imperialism in addition to Trade. Privateering, Pirating and some involvement in slavery appears to be part of trading and profit seeking.

From Wikipedia, looks like Royal Family of england create a corporation for Slavery:

The Royal African Company was a slaving company set up by the Stuart family and London merchants once the former retook the English throne in the English Restoration of 1660. It was led by James, Duke of York, Charles II's brother.

Originally known as the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa, it was granted a monopoly over the English slave trade, by its charter issued in 1660. With the help of the army and navy it established slavery posts on the West African coast, and it was responsible for seizing any English ships that were transporting guns.

It collapsed in 1667 during the war with the Netherlands – the very war it started by having company Admiral Robert Holmes attack the Dutch African trade posts in 1664 – and re-emerged in 1672, having been merged with those of the Gambia Merchants' Company into the new Royal African Company, with a royal charter to set up forts, factories, troops and to exercise martial law in West Africa, in pursuit of trade in gold, silver and slaves.[1]

In the 1680s it was transporting about 5,000 slaves per year. Many were branded with the letters 'DY', after its chief, the Duke of York, who succeeded his brother on the throne in 1685, becoming James II. Other slaves were branded with the company's initials, RAC, on their chests.[2]

Between 1672 and 1689 it transported around 90,000-100,000 slaves. Its profits made a major contribution to the increase in the financial power of those who controlled London.

In 1698, it lost its monopoly. This was advantageous for merchants in Bristol, even if, like the Bristolian Edward Colston, they had already been involved in the compound. The number of slaves transported on English ships then increased dramatically.

The company continued slaving until 1731, when it abandoned slaving in favour of trafficking in ivory and gold dust. Charles Hayes (1678–1760), mathematician and chronologist was sub-governor of Royal African Company till 1752 when it was dissolved. Its successor was the African Company of Merchants.

The Royal African Company's logo depicted an elephant and castle.

From 1668 to 1722 the Royal African Company provided gold to the English Mint. Coins made with this gold bear an elephant below the bust of the king and/or queen. This gold also gave the coinage its name—the guinea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_African_Company

The East India Trading Company was a corporation set up to subdue India and take all of it's valuables/resources for England.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Sikh_wars

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire#Rivalry_with_Russia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire#Plantations_of_Ireland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Country_men

The West Country men (Some called Pirates and some traded slaves) were a group of wealthy individuals in Elizabethan England who advocated the English settlement of Ireland, attacks on the Spanish Empire and overseas colonisation. The group included Humphrey Gilbert, Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake, John Hawkins, Richard Grenville and Ralph Lane.[1]

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_East_India_Company

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_East_India_Company

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emden_Company

The Emden Company was a Prussian trading company which was established in 1752 to trade primarily with the city of Canton in China. Its full name was the Royal Prussian Asiatic Company in Emden to Canton and China.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend_Company

The Imperial Ostend Company (German: Kaiserliche Ostender Kompanie) (Dutch: Keijserlijche Oostendse Compagnie) was an Austrian/Flemish private trading company established in 1717 to trade with the East and West Indies. For a few years it provided strong competition to the traditional colonial trading companies

Company of Merchant Adventurers of London · Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands · London and Bristol Company · African Company of Merchants · Guinea Company · Muscovy Company · Spanish Company · Eastland Company · Morocco Company · East India Company · Levant Company · Virginia Company · French Company · Massachusetts Bay Company · Providence Island Company · Royal West Indian Company · Hudson's Bay Company · Royal African Company · Greenland Company · South Sea Company · Sierra Leone Company · New Zealand Company · Eastern Archipelago Company · Royal British Bank · North Borneo Company · Royal Niger Company · South Africa Company · South Australian Company

French

Company of One Hundred Associates · Compagnie de l'Occident · Compagnie du Mississippi · Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique · Compagnie des Indes Occidentales · Compagnie des Indes Orientales

German

Brandenburg African Company · Emden Company · West African Company · New Guinea Company · East Africa Company

Portuguese

Companhia da Guiné · Companhia de Moçambique · Companhia do Nyassa · Portuguese East India Company · Grão Pará and Maranhão Company · Pernambuco and Paraíba Company · House of India

Low Countries

Dutch East India Company · Nordic Company · New Netherland Company · Dutch West India Company · Ostend Company

Scandinavian

Danish East India Company · Danish West India Company · Royal Greenland · New Sweden Company · Swedish Africa Company · Swedish East India Company · Swedish West India Company · Swedish Levant Company

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism#21st_century_opposition