Forum Post: What is the message?

Corporations are sitting on record amounts of cash, but they are unwilling to use it to hire employees. They claim that the market is too unstable, and so they might regret such a capital outlay tomorrow. New employees? How frivolous! Yes, corporations are making a profit, but it’s not whether you make a profit – it’s how big your profit is relative to everyone else’s, including your own profits from last year. Ludicrous. You’re not going to spend the profits anyway.
In any case, a trickle is inequitable. The people don’t want life support. We want fairness and stewardship. Not only is the money not reaching the needy – it’s being used to shape the policy of our own government.

Here are the true costs of being ruled by the rich and powerful:

Scads of Americans are looking for work, while those with jobs are squeezed to do more and more work. Existing jobs are outsourced to India for a fraction of the salary of an American employee. Union busting is rampant. We are back to the days before Franklin and maybe Teddy Roosevelt. Public education is being systematically dismantled. I honestly believe that the political money machine fears an educated public, because that would equate to fewer uninformed votes. Post-secondary education is affordable only for the wealthy. It’s a paradox – you have to have a degree to earn money, but you have to have big money to earn a degree. THE MONEY STAYS IN THE FAMILY, and the family’s money grows like that of a corporation. Bigger profits, that is, year over year. Why? Simple – just to have more money. Americans’ homes no longer hold equity, and Americans no longer hold their homes. All of this financial stress dismantles families. Corporate greed mandates the United States’ domination over the third world. Hawaii – sugar. Puerto Rico – sugar. Honduras – bananas. Iran – oil. We go to war. We turn people out of their homes, take their farms, log their forests… Due to our thinly veiled incursions, we have gained the disdain of the international community (at least those we haven’t been able to feed B.S.). Environmental degradation is just one more “hidden” cost of doing business. Our air and water are unsafe. Our climate has changed. We are losing species. So what is the message of the discontented majority of Americans? Take your corporate hands off my government.
What actions are we calling for? Here are mine: Dissolve corporations that are harming the public good. We brought them into this world – we can take them out. Limit corporate charters. Prosecute corporate criminals. Campaign reform. Corporations are not individuals, and they do not have the same rights as individuals. They cannot and may not vote. They may not pay for a vote, and there needs to be policing that prevents them from even attempting to influence a vote, via propaganda or any other means. Election reform – there are too many ways for the Democrats and the GOP to exclude what to them are unsavory characters from debates and ballots. These decisions need to be taken out of the hands of the DNC and RNC. Close all offshore tax loopholes. All of them. Levy penalties for outsourcing. Protect employees who belong to a union or want to start a union. “At will” employment leaves too much ambiguity, such that people may be terminated simply for sticking up for themselves. Much stricter environmental policy. Fines don’t cut it. Corporations need to face the possibility of being dissolved for environmental infractions. The world is in too deep of a mess to pussy-foot around with carrots and sticks anymore. Mandatory limits to the work week and mandatory vacations. Credits for raising a family. After all, “it takes a village.” Higher taxes for the very wealthy. There simply comes a point at which you have everything you need or might need down the road. The very rich are not volunteering for philanthropy, so the only alternative is to redistribute it. For crying out loud, educate our kids! Hire our unemployed and fix our deteriorating infrastructure. How in the world can this economy get better if we can’t be sure our bridges won’t collapse and our electric grid won’t black out?