The US obsession with money and profit over work/life balance has created and supported these robber barons. Union membership in Belgium is about 60%, while in the US it’s under 10%. I lived and worked in Belgium 30 years, and never heard of anyone who couldn’t afford healthcare or a college education for their kids - it was very low cos…
The US obsession with money and profit over work/life balance has created and supported these robber barons. Union membership in Belgium is about 60%, while in the US it’s under 10%. I lived and worked in Belgium 30 years, and never heard of anyone who couldn’t afford healthcare or a college education for their kids - it was very low cost or free. The society is set up to take care of its people, not just to extract every shred of productivity and then cast them aside. Paid summer holidays, parental leave, subsidised public transport to work are all integral parts of this system. The entire US system needs restructuring based on human values rather than unbridled capitalism.
Judy, you're preaching to the choir. Amen. Thanks for doing a comparison. It shows the absurdity of what happens when imbalance of power becomes normalized in a society.
Thank nicely said. Sadly many in America for those who want to find societial benefits for taxes paid, they have to leave the states and go somewhere else. For those of us who choose that path, it is painful to go back even for visits to see family as much of the country finds anyone attempting to tell them there are alternatives in contemp.
We do not seem to understand in America that a few big corporations can become very much like a government. While pushing for personal freedom and liberty, many people are happily binding themselves to powers that want to completely restrict and direct that so-called freedom by allying with unrestrained, unaccountable, and unregulated corporate interests. Corporate entities are a wildly unrestrained mind of government if you give it that kind of power. They may claim to be interested in people, but if you are not a significant shareholder ... you have no voice in that government. And if the significant shareholders are making the rules, they will nit be sharing their holdings with you! You will never become a shareholder with a corporation as a government. Those whi have the shares wilk givern so they do not have to "share."
If I wanted to explore vaccines I would review the literature and credible sources in the field, not a lawyer. Why would anyone go to RFK Jr or anyone who has zero expertise in vaccines to learn about vaccines?
Wikipedia claims "The Real Anthony Fauci is a 2021 book by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in which he attacks Anthony Fauci and his three decades of leadership of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In the book, Kennedy offers disinformation about Fauci's role during the HIV epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and HIV/AIDS denialism."
to clarify - I have no science background or experience in the subject matter [does RFK Jr?] so I'm not in a position to assess RFK Jr's claims and sources. I think the best source for this would be the best people in the relevant medical and research fields - does RFK Jr rely on them all, including those who dont take his side, ie does not cherry pick his sources?
Guess what? Lawyers are advocates not objective fact finders.
I did not mean to say that they are not regulated at all, I meant to say that they have advantages and the ability to get away with what normal people cannot.
Also, they have a decent ability to change the rules and regulations if they are able to exert their political power and the political winds are blowing their way (once in a while they blow the other way).
Well, small companies and individuals are not the powers that be, so that makes sense. If a large corp can, it likes to make rules that apply to everybody but them. An example would be a monopoly. There are many reasons to grant them for legit reasons--like in the power industry or if something is particularly dangerous. In both cases there are lots of restrictions tied to the right. But monopoly power for artificial reasons would be quite desirable to some corporations. For military spending, for example, there are good reasons for a monopoly of government contracts for particular weapons and research, but without oversight, the lack of competition allows for lapses in management going unpunished until a crisis occurs, like Boeing is having. No company would turn away a free monopoly though. The amount of patent filings and lawsuits every year show they are coveted.
So with this focus on the fact that these companies are nit lobbying for any party other than themselves (though they might pool funds with other big players in the industry), but you could be assured that small competitors will nit have anything like their voice.
Also large companies can put up big expensive fights that go nowhere, so from an efficiency standpoint within a department, you go after easy fish and look like you are doing something.
So yes, in both lawmaking and enforcement, you see the little guys, small companies and individuals take a pummeling compared to the big guys.
We need a sense of common cause so we don’t constantly think someone is getting something they don’t “deserve.” This tendency to help “one’s own” and compete with “the other” is exacerbated by keeping us fragmented, maybe siloed? We ARE a society with a culture, but not enough see that creating a society that serves all of its members means US, too.
Prof. Reich talks about “the common good.” Maybe we don’t really understand what that encompasses?
We don’t want a culture that ensures “enough” for all. We want one that allows us to dream about becoming filthy rich. And one that takes care of people we identify with, and worries about “the other” reducing our share.
The US obsession with money and profit over work/life balance has created and supported these robber barons. Union membership in Belgium is about 60%, while in the US it’s under 10%. I lived and worked in Belgium 30 years, and never heard of anyone who couldn’t afford healthcare or a college education for their kids - it was very low cost or free. The society is set up to take care of its people, not just to extract every shred of productivity and then cast them aside. Paid summer holidays, parental leave, subsidised public transport to work are all integral parts of this system. The entire US system needs restructuring based on human values rather than unbridled capitalism.
Judy, you're preaching to the choir. Amen. Thanks for doing a comparison. It shows the absurdity of what happens when imbalance of power becomes normalized in a society.
Thank nicely said. Sadly many in America for those who want to find societial benefits for taxes paid, they have to leave the states and go somewhere else. For those of us who choose that path, it is painful to go back even for visits to see family as much of the country finds anyone attempting to tell them there are alternatives in contemp.
The "American Dream" has become the "American Nightmare"
for the working class! The accumulation of wealth and power is the
aphrodisiac of the billionaire class.
We do not seem to understand in America that a few big corporations can become very much like a government. While pushing for personal freedom and liberty, many people are happily binding themselves to powers that want to completely restrict and direct that so-called freedom by allying with unrestrained, unaccountable, and unregulated corporate interests. Corporate entities are a wildly unrestrained mind of government if you give it that kind of power. They may claim to be interested in people, but if you are not a significant shareholder ... you have no voice in that government. And if the significant shareholders are making the rules, they will nit be sharing their holdings with you! You will never become a shareholder with a corporation as a government. Those whi have the shares wilk givern so they do not have to "share."
Paul Bjarnason, I worked at NYDEP and EPA for a couple of decades and I saw close up exactly who actually "regulated" who.
If I wanted to explore vaccines I would review the literature and credible sources in the field, not a lawyer. Why would anyone go to RFK Jr or anyone who has zero expertise in vaccines to learn about vaccines?
Wikipedia claims "The Real Anthony Fauci is a 2021 book by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in which he attacks Anthony Fauci and his three decades of leadership of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In the book, Kennedy offers disinformation about Fauci's role during the HIV epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and HIV/AIDS denialism."
to clarify - I have no science background or experience in the subject matter [does RFK Jr?] so I'm not in a position to assess RFK Jr's claims and sources. I think the best source for this would be the best people in the relevant medical and research fields - does RFK Jr rely on them all, including those who dont take his side, ie does not cherry pick his sources?
Guess what? Lawyers are advocates not objective fact finders.
I did not mean to say that they are not regulated at all, I meant to say that they have advantages and the ability to get away with what normal people cannot.
Also, they have a decent ability to change the rules and regulations if they are able to exert their political power and the political winds are blowing their way (once in a while they blow the other way).
Well, small companies and individuals are not the powers that be, so that makes sense. If a large corp can, it likes to make rules that apply to everybody but them. An example would be a monopoly. There are many reasons to grant them for legit reasons--like in the power industry or if something is particularly dangerous. In both cases there are lots of restrictions tied to the right. But monopoly power for artificial reasons would be quite desirable to some corporations. For military spending, for example, there are good reasons for a monopoly of government contracts for particular weapons and research, but without oversight, the lack of competition allows for lapses in management going unpunished until a crisis occurs, like Boeing is having. No company would turn away a free monopoly though. The amount of patent filings and lawsuits every year show they are coveted.
So with this focus on the fact that these companies are nit lobbying for any party other than themselves (though they might pool funds with other big players in the industry), but you could be assured that small competitors will nit have anything like their voice.
Also large companies can put up big expensive fights that go nowhere, so from an efficiency standpoint within a department, you go after easy fish and look like you are doing something.
So yes, in both lawmaking and enforcement, you see the little guys, small companies and individuals take a pummeling compared to the big guys.
YES, the culture — we need to deal with our fragmented culture…
Hear, hear, and YESSS, Judy.
We need a sense of common cause so we don’t constantly think someone is getting something they don’t “deserve.” This tendency to help “one’s own” and compete with “the other” is exacerbated by keeping us fragmented, maybe siloed? We ARE a society with a culture, but not enough see that creating a society that serves all of its members means US, too.
Prof. Reich talks about “the common good.” Maybe we don’t really understand what that encompasses?
We don’t want a culture that ensures “enough” for all. We want one that allows us to dream about becoming filthy rich. And one that takes care of people we identify with, and worries about “the other” reducing our share.
Is that too cynical? I want it to be too cynical…