(February 10, 2014 at 12:15 pm)TaraJo Wrote: Corporations can't hire assissins to kill individuals. Instead, they can polute the water and air and our food, killing millions. Why are we so well protected from the former but not the latter?
Yes, the basic job of the government does need to be protecting the people, but one of the primary forces we need to be protected from are corporations. So far, the government hasn't been doing the best job there. I think the first thing we need to do is wake up and realize that the way they hurt us is far different from how, say, your neighbor or a car jacker or a rapist will hurt someone and that the way you protect from those hurts is going to be government regulations. I mean, let's be real: you aren't going to let a pedophile influence the law as it relates to child sex crimes; so why do we let corporations have so much influence on the regulations intended to curb their bad behavior?
Because corporations finance re-election campaigns. It's a pernicious effect of elections being popularity contests. Given the Citizens United decision, we have something of a dilemma when it comes to fixing that. How do we constrain the political power of corporations without un-Constitutionally constraining the political power of the people who form the coporation? A Constitutional amendment? Who is going to pass that finely-crafted legislation in a country where re-election campaigns are largely financed by corporations?
It might be easier to erode corporate power indirectly by increasing constraints on what our congress critters can do for their benefactors. Our government has to treat all religions the same, not favoring one nor oppressing another, and most people recognize that this is in the best interest of all concerned. Much of our economic policy is based on incentivizing this enterprise and hamstringing this other one. From the point of view of business-owners, influencing government is a self-defense measure: if they don't do it, the other guy will. MS was hardly involved in lobbying at all before its competitors influenced the government to break it up. Now they won't be outspent.
I'm just spitballing, I don't pretend to have a definitive answer. I just recognize that we have a complex problem without simple solutions that needs to be addressed...but it may only be possible to do it in small bites.
