The Seperation of Business and State
An Idea brought up in the last post “The Price of Tea…” Some of you have said that if we shift the current power base from the Rep’s to the Dem’s etc.. Rather than take that subject thread another direction. I would like to hear from you about how we could possibly separate big business (or small for that matter) from the government ?
Not that this has ever been this way in this country it would be nice to try for a while and see how the market of free ideas could blossom. As many of you know I consider myself an Independent and think that government other than safety rules should stay out of the business business. Why should I be able to do what I want to do as a business more than the next business just because I can afford a better lobbyist and more perks/bribes for the government? If we could get Big Government out of Big Oil, How fast do you think the price of oil would drop and alternative fuels would come on line?…
February 5th, 2006 at 1:07 am
you may say he’s a dreamer
but he’s not the only one…
In the mean time, we need our big government to START controlling big oil instead of letting them
run wild.
February 5th, 2006 at 11:18 am
I’m not exactly sure what you’re getting at here. Other than lobbying, what part of the government/business relationship do you want separated? Why would that promote a market of free ideas?
Also, as the price of oil drops, alternative fuels become less attractive, not more. They are only just now getting cost-effective with the current oil prices.
Concerning Randalf’s comment above: Please see the questions on my “The Price of Tea…” comment.
February 6th, 2006 at 11:28 am
In fact, historically, the power and scope of corporations was very limited. Of course, you have to go back to the civil war. Lincoln warned that if we weren’t careful these new entities called, “corporations”, they were going to run this country. So corporations were individually chartered by states to serve a very specific function, for example, to make shoes. If they deviated from that, they could instantly lose their charter, sort of a corporate death sentence. Then in 1886 the courts lost their collective mind and ruled that the 14th amendment, which was supposed to free the slaves, applied to corporations. And here we are.
This is what, I think we need to stem the tied of corporate/cultural hegemony:
– Transparency: no more behind-closed-doors deals. Light particularly needs to be shed on military contracts. The need for secrecy exists at times, although I would suggest it is rare, and in those cases their would be a time-limit of 5 or 10 years, after which time if any impropriety is found, severe punishment should be handed out.
– Increased individual liability: the primary reason corporations more or less run this country is, in my opinion, that they are “people” who you can’t effectively punish. The actual people who make decisions are shielded from the full weight of punishment by corporate law. There has to be a balance. Limitation of liability has its purposes to encourage more ambitious ventures, but we have gone way, way too far. The people who have the most to gain from a company should also have the most to lose.
– Conflict-of-interest law: current conflict-of-interest law is a joke. Scientist working for the FDA can take part in scientific trials for companies for which they consult. This sort of thing make government and business almost one entity.
– Re-regulation: banking and telecommunications deregulation has been a disaster for diversity of opinion. While rolling back to the way it was is not a winnable battle at this point, there are attainable goals: pro-actively preventing corporations from getting their grubby little hands on larger percentages of the Internet backbone. Freeing up Citizen Band radio from the regulatory knots that commercial, and I am ashamed to say, public radio have so successfully lobbied for.
Despite all this, much of the problem is largely cultural. Most people in this country, regardless of social station seem to think they are the next Bill Gates. They are wrong. Most people are and will always be crushed under by the power of this corporate controlled culture. As Bloom County pointed out, it is only in America where someone like Donald Trump wouldn’t have been strung up by his entrails by now.
END RANT
February 6th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
RIGHT ON !
February 6th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
I don’t see how you can separate business and government. You can change the relationship though.