Excellent analysis of Occupy protestors

While he has many salient points, he also suggests that we “thank” Monsanto and infers that they have hard working mom and pop farmers happily working for them.

Which is utter bs.

(I know, a very minor quibble, but its important to me.)

Also, lost in all this Occupy nonsense is the very real fact that if they had half a brain, they could put forth a very important and resonating “protest” idea that I think even FReepers would get behind. Hell, Sarah Palin wrote an op-ed in the WSJ (I think) last week saying as much. There IS something wrong with corporate cronyism and there IS something wrong with bailouts and the way they are doled out.

Just a shame that the children were put in charge of making that point.

There IS something wrong with corporate cronyism and there IS something wrong with bailouts and the way they are doled out.

Carefull. It's the chicken and the egg. Left alone with no influence or ability (percieved or real) to influence, corporations would be far less corruptable. But, alas, we have a government that has injected itself into the corporate battlefield as a regulatory necessity. Suddenly, there is motive to help the government pick the winners and losers by certain subtleties modified in certain laws. A company with $50B in revenues doesn't mind investing $2M in some special marketing to a politician. Make the regulatory process unmolestable, and the corruption mostly goes away.

How might we make it unmolestable? Let them police each other and come up with standardized tests and reports. Then let the consumers pick winners and losers.

I’ve wrestled with this for many years. I happen to wholly disagree with the Supreme Court that corporations are people. I am for term limits, vastly shorter campaign seasons and vastly less government/corporate nuzzling.

The feds needs to make laws to govern people and businesses. Businesses need to have a say in those laws, yes, but they shouldn’t MAKE those laws. let alone BUY those laws. Internal policing would work, but it will still become gray with collusion and whatnot. We, the schlubs, need to have some protection against not only government, but from gigantor corporations as well.

I like your idea - but how do we achieve true transparency? I think it’s doable - with REAL penalties for malfeasance. Even if those penalties hurt the consumers, after 50 years of pain, maybe we can move forward with this crap.

My FRiend, you are giving spirit and soul to a corporation. A corporation is absolutely incapable of sin. It is not corrupt any more than it pays taxes or causes cancer. Nobody gets rich off of a corporation. Folks get wealthy by contributing to the success of the corporation and collecting a "fair wage". How does anyone (economist) define success in a company?

Have you ever heard an economist say, "They have never had a profit but they are a very successful company."?

Do you own any retirement investments?

Now we have your head in the right spot.

The feds needs to make laws to govern people and businesses.

I agree. Let's name them. I'll start. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shall not murder. Thou shall pay taxes. Businesses shall not torture workers with whips, fire or oil.....It goes down from there. They are already "making laws" because of YOUR behavior. You anti-seatbelt, helmetless, smoking motorcycle rider with a child in your lap while eating a saturated fat soaked cheeseburger.

Businesses need to have a say in those laws, yes, but they shouldn’t MAKE those laws.

The fed just passed a law that would limit what lenders could charge their clients for the privilege of providing immediate liquidity on credited expenditures from consumers. In other words, the fed, on the advice of BIG BOX RETAIL, decided instead of $.49/charge the banks could only charge $.25/charge (don't recall the exacts) per debit card transaction. Guess what! This cost the banks (which aren't people), and their investors, hundreds of millions of dollars.

Do you think the investors are going to tell the Board of Directors and CEO, "That's ok. I don't mind if my retirement account loses 10% of its value for the next 5 consecutive years until we can adjust the projections."?

No. See, its the investors that said, "Mr. CEO, this isn't good. How did you let this happen and how are you going to make sure I get the return on my investment that you projected? Figure it out or your fired." They have to find the revenue or cut gobs of costs. We either downsize and cut overhead or we increase fees or else be tarred and feathered by the owners (investors).

What would you do Mr. Big Bank CEO?

If I were on the board, I would ask you why you were not more instrumental in stopping this BS legislation that Durbin got passed. "Did you fall asleep at the wheel? Where is our lobbyist?"

Notice, the bank had nothing to do with it and it the bank will not lose a dime. One way or another, consumers pick up the tab.

Next....

We, the schlubs, need to have some protection against not only government, but from gigantor corporations as well.

We do. We spend the money and we vote. If the election process weren't so obscured with money donations and media corruptions; If we had faith in consumer reporting and honest corporations, the American public would do fine to pick winners and losers.

How do we do it?

Think about the mechanic you go to. How about the barber? Do you have a favorite restaurant? Why?

There is your answer.

My answer is to largely deregulate a whole bunch of business starting wit the banks. $hitcan Freddie and Fannie and outlaw bailouts (I mean follow the constitution). Let losers fail and tell them they are on their own.

Only prosecute collusion and price fixing. Only regulate safety testing (not standards).

Stop taxing "businesses" all together. There is no point. Businesses collect taxes they don't pay them. They are a pass thru. Raise EVERYONE'S taxes by the revenue lost (sit back and watch that firestorm as people start to realize what taxes really are.).

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