General Music Chat

I believe the Founders of this nation established the court system as the branch of government necessary to deal with employer/employee/marketplace problems, NOT Federal intrusion and oversight. Statism is statism, fascism is fascism and America cannot be America if the federal government continues to operate in a role the Founders NEVER intended.

Corporations may do evil things. Let Americans handle that with their wallets, their choice of employment, the courts, BUT do NOT allow the federal government to have oversight and control of corporations or you have socialism/fascism/statism, which is tyranny. It will always be tyranny.

Freedom and liberty come with prices. It is an experiment. The Great Experiment. Americans will have to learn and relearn what responsible citizenship means. If they hand responsibility to the federal government for that which they should have themselves they shall (are) lose their freedom and liberty and God given rights and pursuit of happiness to the whims of political power mongers dressed up as wonderful benefactors.

Well put.

Man, the government has taken over everything, especially the food supply. America could feed the world alone on just the produce our farmers end up burning every year. The produce that isn't chemically altered to produce no seeds. Surely, our government wouldn't want you to reproduce something bought for consumption.

If pot became legal, you know who would have those seeds picked out don't you? You can keep the stems though.

Man, the government has taken over everything, especially the food supply. America could feed the world alone on just the produce our farmers end up burning every year. The produce that isn't chemically altered to produce no seeds. Surely, our government wouldn't want you to reproduce something bought for consumption.

If pot became legal, you know who would have those seeds picked out don't you? You can keep the stems though.

Now why would the government do that? It wouldn't happen to be because politicians' allegiance belongs to Wall Street instead of Main Street would it? It couldn't be because there's a PROFIT motive to intimidate them? WHO would benefit by creating artificial scarcity?

Um...isn't our court system a PART of our gov't?

Preventative measures should be taken, re corporate crap, imho, as well. Too many ppl can get hurt in the name of corp greed, & the court systems are overloaded & slow to react, far too slow to save those ppl who have been hurt by improper corp behaviors.

Considering how the monopolizing corp's on the global scale are working, these days, I don't trust THEM to handle our food supplies, or our meds, or our energy needs, either! They need REGULATION, pure & simple, to keep them from enslaving us all.

So what % of American businesses would you classify as evil?

I dunno the percentage, but I'll jump in here, Chris, with a few names of truly EVIL corporations,
*snip list*
I guess what I'm saying, Chris & Glen, is that if you can name a large corporation, you have named an entity that needs gov't oversight, to protect us all from its corporate interests. Hell, that probably goes for small corporations, too. Note that I didn't even touch on the ones like the big banks, the insurance ripoffs, securities traders, hospitals, the electric co's or big oil.

ANY corporation, by definition, is evil, in that it has one goal, & one goal only - & it ISN'T to "produce the best product for the price." Employees don't matter. Customers don't matter. Health & safety & environmental concerns & human rights & even LAWS are for other folks to worry about, because the ONLY goal of the cprp is to rake in the bucks. I don't give a damn how many of these fine co's give lip service to any of the above concerns or violations, cuz at their core, they only exist to make money for their investors. For the most part, those investors don't know or care how the money is made, only that it IS made, whatever the cost to others. Anywhere there is no soul, no conscience, & no personal accountability, that is EVIL in my book. Put it on a f*cking leash or in a cage. Monitor it carefully. Keep it from doing harm. THAT is what we have a gov't for - to protect us from evil, & as fas as I can tell, we suffer far more from our enemies within like these outlaw outfits, than we do the muslim hordes or the terrorist bombs. These are just more insidious, & come at us with the smarmy smiles & offers of services & products that kill or maim or take advantage of us or steal from us or otherwise harm us.

I hear ya Phil. I guess my point is mainly that that because of the actions of a few, we tend to want to blanket the rest. There are about 5.5 million firms with employees in the U.S. (http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/smallbus.html), and I just don't think the intent of the majority of them is to screw people for money. Same goes for investors - I know that if I owned a corporation, or funded one via investing, my intent wouldn't be to screw my employees or the people who want my services or products, and there are certain companies that I WILL NOT invest in because of how they fund interests that go against my core convictions.

So I just don't think every corporation out there is out to screw people. And I disagree with using taxes as a punishment because taxes affect everyone - i.e., you can't tax just the bad companies as taxes apply to everyone meeting an income bracket - so the good ones get hit as well. I'd much prefer to see an end to corporations giving money to the gov't so as to affect laws.

The richer you are, the "freer" you are, & the greater potential you have to do harm on a larger scale. We have given corporations in this country the same rights the individual has in every respect, save the power to vote. This is pure stupidity. They have the power to contribute far larger amounts to campaigns, to assure that they have the power to control our very gov't. They now have the power to legislate by proxy, to penalize & tax us by proxy, & to control our food, our water, our energy, our health, our availability to goods & services, &, thus, our ability to pursue our happiness.

If you don't see anything wrong with that, if you don't see the dangers inherent in such a corrupt system, you are either living with blinders on, or a huge part of our problems.

With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

hold tight lads...it ain't gonna go on forever

Fact.

This too shall pass.

Chris, I'm really less for taxing the corp's than I am for REGULATING THEM, & ANY corp that has a stranglehold on their field in the world market should be heavily taxed in order to sell their wares here, while we ENCOURAGE other firms to spring up to compete with fewer taxes. Small biz is where it's at for me, but big is okay, as long as they allow fair competition, something that goes against the grain of any biz by definition. Competition & regulation is the only way we will ever remain free from slavery, esp economic slavery, which, let's face it, is as bad as any other form of the word.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aumejrcEHs

DivShare File - 06 Negativand - The Greatest Taste Around.mp3

(Negativland)

Phil's saying it.

Chaeya

Um...isn't our court system a PART of our gov't?


Preventative measures should be taken, re corporate crap, imho, as well. Too many ppl can get hurt in the name of corp greed, & the court systems are overloaded & slow to react, far too slow to save those ppl who have been hurt by improper corp behaviors.

Considering how the monopolizing corp's on the global scale are working, these days, I don't trust THEM to handle our food supplies, or our meds, or our energy needs, either! They need REGULATION, pure & simple, to keep them from enslaving us all.

Here is an example:


1,119480
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Email Comments 2,296 WASHINGTON -- There may be something rotten at McDonald's -- and it's not a year-old Happy Meal.

The owner of a franchise in Canton, Ohio enclosed a handbill in employees' paychecks that threatened lower wages and benefits if Republicans don't win on Tuesday.

"As the election season is here we wanted you to know which candidates will help our business grow in the future," reads the letter. "As you know, the better our business does it enables us to invest in our people and our restaurants. If the right people are elected we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above our present levels. If others are elected, we will not. As always, who you vote for is completely your personal decision and many factors go into your decision."

The note ends with a list of candidates McDonald's believes "will help our business move forward." It names Republicans John Kasich for governor, Rob Portman for Senate, and Jim Renacci for Congress. With the letter was a biography of Renacci.

"The handbill endorses candidates who have in essence pledged to roll back the minimum wage and eviscerate the safety net that protects the most vulnerable members of our workforce," said Attorney Allen Schulman of Canton law firm Schulman Zimmerman & Associates, which received the documents from an employer who stepped forward. "But it's more than that. When a corporation like McDonald's intimidates its employees into voting a specific way, it violates both state and federal election law. It's no surprise to anyone that Ohio is a battleground state in this election, and for a multinational corporation like McDonald's to threaten employees like this is morally and legally wrong. This despicable corporate conduct is the logical extension of the Citizens United decision, which has unleashed corporate arrogance and abuse."


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In the '08 election Wal Mart had mandatory employee meetings in which ppl had to sit through campaign commercials & co "recommendations, re the election. This stuff has been going on for many years...wherever it has been allowed.

Good one, Nav.