Every year since 1954, a small network of rich and powerful people have held a discussion meeting about the state of the trans-Atlantic alliance and the problems facing Europe and the US.I heard an argument the other day which thesis was that Business should be trusted over government. The idea being advanced was we need limited government on the one hand and free trade on the other in order for the United State to effectively compete in this global market. This argument was put forward by a very famous Conservative who is just as wrong about this topic as he is famous.
Organised by a steering committee of two people from each of about 18 countries, the Bilderberg Group (named after the Dutch hotel in which it held its first meeting) brings together about 120 leading business people and politicians. –BBC News
First the question is not whether we can trust one, government or business, above the other we can not. Both are equally worthy of our disdain. In this much I agree with Sen. John McCain, corporate power should be curtailed.
What is clear is that our founding fathers had a disdain for government. What is apparently unclear is why they did. The founders realized that consolidated power in whichever form it took, government or religion, would be ultimately used against the people. What the founders did not see coming was the entity that we face, unregulated and unrestrained global corporate power. And (here)
That notwithstanding is why they took great pains to warn us against government and that is why they invented the checks and balances of a triadic form of government. The intention was to keep power from consolidating into any one branch of government. In addition, the vote of the people was instituted to ensure that this government would be answerable to the people.
Therefore, Government can be feared slightly less than business because there are these mechanisms in place to make government somewhat responsive to the people and government must comply, if only for appearance sake, to the vote of the people whereas unlike government there is relatively nothing that citizens can do to make business heed the will of the people.
"If we will not endure a king as a political power we should not endure a king over the production, transportation, and sale of any of the necessaries of life."—John Sherman
And don’t trot out the idea that market forces control business. Business has made it it’s business to control market forces as well, business has made it it's business to control governments as I will attempt to argue.
I have previously argued that everything that is wrong with America today can be laid at the feet of Corporations.
Everything that is wrong in America today can be blamed on an out-of-control corporate environment that will do anything and everything for the sake of the bottom line. Profit!—AlaphiahIt was the Oil Corporations that made billionaires and trillionaires in the middle east therefore these Corporations are directly and indirectly responsible for the rise of Islamic terrorism, the war in Iraq, secret Saudi manipulations and funding of terrorists, a brazen Iran and an out of control Venezuela.
Oil revenues provided by corporations have lead to the undermining of the Western way of live through the Middle East control of oil prices and have set the stage for an upcoming mother of all jihads, battle of economic power between the West and the East.
Without the oil revenues that corporations made possible Islamist would still be running around in the Middle Eastern deserts waging tribal wars against one another instead of the global terrorism that we are daily forced to contend with.
With only regard for their own enrichment Oil Corporations have put the world in grave danger by placing the world economic power in the oil reserves of the Middle East thus changing the balance of economic power from the West to the East.
As testament to this even as you read this the U.S. dollar is being replace by the Euro which in turn will be replaced by what ever currency that oil enriched nations decide will benefit their objectives, business and otherwise, of world domination.
In addition to the just mentioned Middle Eastern investors and bankers are buying up U.S. debt placing the United States in the power of foreign creditors. This is a world that unregulated and unrestrained corporations have created not government!
America is in the last throes of a decadent sexualized wanton hedonistic consumer driven society in which value is only placed in how much money one can make and/or what one can eat, wear, play with and have sexual relationship with for the moment.
It is corporations that have worked hard to appeal to our most debased appetites in effort to condition us to buy their latest little i-phone or i-pod bobble which to entertain ourselves to death with while simultaneously increasing their bottom line.
Every aspect of one’s life is now controlled by Corporations what you hear, what you watch where you work or if you work. America is truly at the mercy of corporate power.
And we allow these controlling corporate bodies to virtually manipulate every aspect of our lives from who to vote for to which automobile to purchase. From health care, HMO’s and Pharmaceuticals unregulated and unrestrained corporations are the cause for the economic woes of the United States of America.
"The combined profits for the ten drug companies in the Fortune 500 ($35.9 billion) were more than the profits for all the other 490 businesses put together ($33.7 billion).Last, but certainly not least, how is the world food supply holding up? Well since control of the world’s food supply has fallen under corporate control even food is being mismanaged.
Over the past two decades the pharmaceutical industry has moved very far from its original high purpose of discovering and producing useful new drugs. Now primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit, this industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution that might stand in its way, including the US Congress, the FDA, academic medical centers, and the medical profession itself."-- Marcia Angell, M.D.
Food is being genetically altered or becoming scarce because of use for biofuels either of which has exposed and left vulnerable world food supplies.
From food to energy and to medicine unregulated and unrestrained corporate business have remained unaccountable for all of the world-wide disasters that they have caused.
How anyone can argue that government should be limited with respect to controlling corporations is beyond me and not to mention that thought is not in line with concepts of liberty and freedom and certainly not in line with what is best for America.
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