2004-06-09
CORPORATE CONTROL
Ralph Nader on Corporate Interests | from the American Conservative interview with Pat Buchanan, 21 June 2004
Never thought I'd be doing anything that would pay heed to multi-millionaire faux-populist Buchanan, but these are indeed strange times | Besides, he's giving the lone contender against corporate apologist candidates a chance to be heard | More than we can expect from FOX, Time Warner, Capitol Cities, and the rest of the sorry bunch controlling the information streams we casually call "the news" | ¶ 09:09
Ralph Nader on Corporate Interests | from the American Conservative interview with Pat Buchanan, 21 June 2004
"...what representative government is for, to counteract the excesses of the monied interests, as Thomas Jefferson said. Because big business realizes that the main countervailing force against their excesses and abuses is government, their goal has been to take over the government, and they do this with money and politics.They do it by putting their top officials at the Pentagon, Treasury, and Federal Reserve, and they do it by providing job opportunities to retiring members of Congress. They have law firms that draft legislation and think-tanks that provide ready-made speeches. They also do it by threatening to leave the country. The quickest way to bring a member of Congress to his or her knees is by shifting industries abroad.
Concentrated corporate power violates many principles of capitalism. For example, under capitalism, owners control their property. Under multinational corporations, the shareholders don’t control their corporation. Under capitalism, if you can’t make the market respond, you sink. Under big business, you don’t go bankrupt; you go to Washington for a bailout. Under capitalism, there is supposed to be freedom of contract. When was the last time you negotiated a contract with banks or auto dealers? They are all fine-print contracts. The law of contracts has been wiped out for 99 percent of contracts that ordinary consumers sign on to. Capitalism is supposed to be based on law and order. Corporations get away with corporate crime, fraud, and abuse. And finally, capitalism is premised on a level playing field; the most meritorious is supposed to win. Tell that to a small inventor or a small business up against McDonald’s or a software programmer up against Microsoft.
Giant multinational corporations have no allegiance to any country or community other than to control them or abandon them. So what we have now is the merger of big business and big government to further subsidize costs or eliminate risks or guarantee profits by our government."
Never thought I'd be doing anything that would pay heed to multi-millionaire faux-populist Buchanan, but these are indeed strange times | Besides, he's giving the lone contender against corporate apologist candidates a chance to be heard | More than we can expect from FOX, Time Warner, Capitol Cities, and the rest of the sorry bunch controlling the information streams we casually call "the news" | ¶ 09:09
