DIYbanter - View Single Post - OT-Lobbyists Forge Letters In Derivatives Reform

Hawke[_3_]

On 2/16/2011 5:49 PM, wrote:
On Feb 16, 7:49 pm, wrote:

That only means you have no idea what is going on. You are sadly
uninformed of the danger that we are in. I see you as someone in Europe
in the 1930s who sees nothing to fear from the coming of Fascism. The
threat of corporate control of our country is real. You are just
oblivious to it.

Hawke

And you see bogeymen behind every tree.

You are right I do not see any threat of corporate control of the
U.S. Somehow I managed to work for many years and only saw
corporations that were managed by humans. Managed to negotiate
without needing a union etc.

I see you as a "True Believer" that needs a cause. I am willing to
read whatever you can find on the threat of corporate control. But do
not think you will find anything. The truth is that there are
thousands of corporations competing with each other. Not colluding to
take control of the country.

Dan

But there are also many corporations that collude with each other all
the time. You have members of one giant corporation serving on the
boards of many others. You see industries, which are just a group of
companies in the same business, working together. You see them set
prices. You see them agree not to compete against each other. If you
don't see this then you are simply in the dark. Businesses work as a
team in groups like the business roundtable. They work together in
collective groups like the chamber of commerce to advance their aims.
They work through lobbyists to achieve their goals.

The Koch brothers are working to eliminate laws that keep the air clean.
Tobacco companies worked to sell products that addicted and killed
people. I could give you a list a mile long of businesses doing all
kinds of heinous things and working in conjunction with each other. Most
damage done to this country has been done by corporations not individuals.

The evidence of malfeasance by corporations is huge. You could go back
to Teddy Roosevelt and hear what he said about corporations. You want to
defend corporations because of your personal feelings about them. I'm
going strictly on the evidence. The last trick of corporations was to
get the supreme court to rule that they could buy off elections as if
they were individual people. Every time something like that happens it
diminishes things for real people. History is not on the side of the
corporations. They have been doing bad things for many years. The fact
that they create jobs and make a lot of money doesn't make up for it
either. But don't think this applies to all corporations. It doesn't.
Many of them do nothing wrong, but it only takes a few giant ones to do
all the damage. Look a little closer. You'll see I'm not just whistling
Dixie.

Hawke