Amen to that, David. We’ve reached the age of predatory capitalism. People know it, but the GOP’s massive deception campaign has confused many about who benefits. And the profitable business of war and climate destruction continues.
Mary Ellen Sinkiewicz : They want to defund NOAA so the data cannot be compiled to show actual relationships between fossil fuel use and increasing weather disasters. All this time after Jan 6, there are finally unredacted documents showing tRUMP's intent. They want to block the truth in every way. Facts are hard to ignore. The truth could set US free.
Mary Ellen - capitalism has always been predatory. Capitalism is based on theft of time, labor, resources. It is worshipped more fervently than any god.
Pat - capitalism is very near a zero sum game. because of our lifestyle, others lack. Capitalism has its roots in mercantilism of the 15th and 16th centuries, when white europeans started sending ships out to plunder (yes plunder) the labor and resources of the world not yet colonized by white europeans. this plundering was sanctioned by the catholic church as long as it also entailed converting the heathens. if the heathens wouldn't submit, slavery or death were perfectly acceptable outcomes. in our hemisphere we see the direct consequences of this in the migration from the fruit company ravages of 130 years in central america, as they stole the land and labor (enslaved) from the inhabitants. the US army was frequently brought in to restore "order" when people rebelled against having their land, labor, and resources stolen. this is capitalism. it is based on free (slave, as in america) or cheap labor and free (stolen) resources. this activity has been cloaked in fine phrases such as "national security" or "national interests", but is always about profit and the power that accrues with money. now the problem for me is that I benefit from this arrangement. i like my standard of living, my pension, my paid off house and reasonable health. how do i reconcile my beliefs and my comfort? i don't know. i guess i advocate for redistribution of the obscene weatlh at the top, and even at the lower levels of wealth. I don't believe anyone needs more than a million dollars, especially if we had universal healthcare, universal comprehensive education, and all the other needs that could be easily met in a moral society. why just think - if all the '' christians" practiced what they preach.
there is enough for everyone's needs, but not nearly enough for everyone's greed. lastly poverty is violence and is a policy choice.
You describe human migration and cultural interaction and place that at the heart of “capitalism”? I think that is all too simplistic, and leads us down an angry rabbit hole that offers NO solutions.
Capitalism is based on “private” ownership of industry and trade for profit. That’s WAY too loose, so structure needs to be in place, to prevent things like profiting from grifting people with frauds and inferior products, not to mention anti-trust to prevent excessive accumulation of wealth that allows those with money to victimize those with less. Structure to prevent exploiting labor by siphoning profit only to the top, leaving the actual creators of “value” to struggle for their daily bread. {I think FDR understood all this …so did Teddy, to an extent.}
What countries did centuries ago need not define what we do now. How we structure our world, our economies, ownership and sharing the resources needed to make things and provide services, as well as the profit from making and selling those things and services … that is what I’m talking about. We don’t have to leave “ownership” as “unfettered” … And we don’t leave it unfettered. We have a lot of fences. Mostly on industry …Not enough on money and finance.
People might not like my bringing her up, but Sen. Eliz.Warren had a plan to protect consumers from the some of the power of financial over-reach, The Consumer FINANCIAL Protection Bureau, but Obama was told he could not have the bureau with her in charge, so they put someone else in charge and pretty much castrated the Bureau. {He gave in to Wall Street far too much — possibly because he was so new to national politics that he did not have the network of allies he needed to resist them — He had way too many Wall Street and Clinton centrist types in his cabinet. He had other things foisted on him, too, like the ACA with insurance companies at its heart, and refusal to address his court appointments.}
What I see is a need to identify our structural shortcomings and address them… I see us arguing against broad descriptions of something that needs to be seen much closer to the bone — and needs to be seen regarding its nitty-gritty functionality. Analyze our economic structure, and work on making it better.
We have the skills. And skilled people. Of course, they’ll call it “socialism,” but it’s not. Although a touch of socialism added to capitalism makes for a much better financial stew. If only we could help people understand which side their bread is buttered on. {Stew, bread, butter … it does all come down to that in the end. The bread-and-butter issues…}
What are YOUR solutions? Serious, real-world, function-on-a-national and international-scale solutions?
Over 100 years ago Marxism was workers controlling the means of production. Now , workers who want safety regulations and a living wage are called "Marxists" or stretching it out more, Communists..How things have changed.
On a spectrum ranging from 1 to 10 where Capitalism is 1 and Regulated Capitalism 10, we are at 3 maybe 4. The GOP thinks we’re at 12, so do those in the “matrix”.
In the place of “regulation,” if that word is a sticking point, say “unstructured” then. But our system of capitalism has too few fences, for sure. I like private ownrship and entrepreneurial energy, and group ownership and labor cooperatives .. lots of ways to do a thing … with rules and structure and expectations and “fences” that protect the public from exploitation…
The GOP thinks we are at 12 in industrial regulation.
We are barely at 3 or 4 in financial regulation.
Yeah, I know it’s hard. That’s why our founders thought we needed universal education. The only way to have a democracy is to have an educated population, and an informed one that can understand these issues and a skosh of nuance.
The opposition to Democracy knows that. Why else are they trying to destroy education and the media.
It’s way too easy to destroy. So hard to build.
I’m trying NOTto give up, which is what they want us to do.
[For the record, if not a structured and regulated capitalist system, what do you propose?]
Yes, it is so hard to build, so easy to destroy. When we are angry we want to destroy. As we can see from our own experience, a society with lots of angry people becomes a self-wreaking society. Trump and his supporters want to destroy, and promise us to return to a past that never existed. Any one who supports Trump is delusional.
The threat to move operations from one state to another, mandatory arbitration and right-to-work laws make regulation unlikely. The Marxists called for a dictatorship of the proletariat. The libertarians want a dictatorship of capitalists. FDR said No to dictatorship, and he advised us to fear not but fear itself.
There is no such thing, in reality, as a “dictatorship” of the proletariat.
There has never been an ACTUAL whole country run on “communist” principles. The only communist societies I am aware of are the Kibbutzim, and they are small enough to function democratically along communist lines.
You get to a “communist” country like Russia or Korea or any of the others, and you get a despot in control of the government that runs everything and the people get what the autocrat in control says they get … Not much different from the Fascists, where the government is in cahoots with business, and the oligarchs decide what the people can have. In the end, it’s a despot and businesses that prevail, and the people get in line or get in trouble.
I don’t see much difference between a despotic fascist regime or a despotic communist regime. At the top are powerful people {men, typically} who live high off the hog and call all the shots, and then all the people who get the work done, and they’d better not rock the boat, if they know what’s good for them.
I’d be happy with some stronger democratically enacted laws that call for fair pay pegged to corporate profits, shared among managers, shareholders, AND the labor that gave rise to the revenues in the first place … And environmental decency. And fair taxation. And use of our taxes for the benefit of our citizens, and the people in the world we deem need help.
We could structure our capitalism that way, if people were willing …
Even if we were to adapt to an economy based on sustainability (everything gets recycled), Republicans would be happy to observe that even under a sustainable premise, CEOs could still get their undeserved bonuses! I suspect there’s a built-in prejudice among most people that favors the beautiful (Hollywood) and the talented and wants to shower rewards on them, deserved or not. This piece of human nature is difficult to overcome and possibly impervious to reform. Think about the many images of the Virgin Mary that have been produced in the past 2,000 years: according to the artist, she’s a very comely young lady. What was her actual appearance? Ditto for her son. How many of us believe that he resembled Max von Sydow? I’ll bet he resembled Groucho Marx.
DeTocqueville said that America had two religions Capitalism and Christianity and that they were opposed to each other if properly practiced He did not know which one would prevail but it is obvious which one did Capitalism has not only virtually eliminated authentic Christianity it actually coopted it so that for many Christians Social Darwinism has replaced the Gospel Capitalism is hostile to any spiritually based movement It thrives on denying that there is another life beyond this one and it says the richer you are the better person you are and how you get your money is irrelevant The only thing important in life is maximizing your income
Some of the most successful capitalists were deeply religious. They tended to be protestants. They also tended to save, invest, and support charitable work. None of them worked for limited liability corporations, in so far as I know.
Capitalism is the best economic system in terms of efficiency so Socialism is not the answer but Capitalism needs to be regulatedand it needs to be regulated by an authentic Christianity that condemns greed and any oppression of workers or any other human beings but that kind of Christianity is almost totally non existent in contemporary America
A limited liability corporation is a money-making machine. It has no soul, no conscience. The individuals who run them are expected to deliver; if they do not they are replaced. We are all complicit in whatever wrongs they commit.
Regulated by Christianity? How about regulated by fairness and concern for your fellow man. Religion has been the largest cause of death in the history of the world. Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, Hindu, etc etc. pick your poison. Spirituality is a different thing altogether.
Religion has always been about money and accumulation of wealth for those at the top. Sounds a little like capitalism but without all the bother of actually earning the money.
❤️Reich❤️:"The next morning’s Daily Oklahoman used my expedition as an illustration of the worst sort of meddling from Washington. In a bitter editorial, it accused me of grandstanding for political purposes. Its front-page story quoted angry tire workers..."
see Dr. Festinger's "When Prophecy Fails"...or better yet...my definition of "Militant Placeboees"... or better yet... ""THE MATRIX"...
"That system is our enemy...The very minds of the people we are trying to save...these people are a part of that system...most of these people are not ready to be unplugged...so hopelessly dependent on the system...that they will fight to protect it."--Morpheus explains how innocent seeming people will suddenly morph into desperate defenders of the oppressive system🤔😱🤯... just as a baby accepts a swapping of placebos when "Moms replace baby's filthy thumb with a sterile pacifier"
Note: up to 60% of anxiety lab... lab subjects were cured by placebo.... aka 60% of Americans may suddenly morph into desperate defenders of the oppressive system🤔😱🤯
The problem is that both parties are dependent upon political contributions from corporations and their PACs, and lobbyists. Till money is taken out of politics, the problem persists.
By the way if the Republicans control the House after Jan 3rd, and the election is hung up by the electoral college and the shenanigans of the Republicans. The whole election goes to the Congress, each state gets one vote and guess which states have the most votes
William, in theory I agree with you. However, in reality, even if by some magic, corporate political monies were mandated to a minimum, what do you think the big cheeses at those companies would do with that money; give it to their workers, to philanthropic causes or pay the taxes, they rightfully owe the government? Answer: none of the above-those millions and billions would go right back into their pockets. To fight lawsuits for corporate malfeasance yet another day. Sorry to be so dark, but it’s getting uncomfortably close to elections.
The top income tax rate reached above 90% from 1944 through 1963, peaking in 1944, when top taxpayers paid an income tax rate of 94% on their taxable income. Starting in 1964, a period of income tax rate decline began, ending in 1987.
Returning to those tax rates, for people and corporations is the way to eliminate the power of money in politics.
Here is a sad truth, democracy contains the seeds of i'ts own destruction.
I believe it was bin Laden who said we will use your freedoms to destroy you.
Even if it wasn't, tis true. Why are we under threat of a fascist dictatorship?
Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, right to bear arms, our supreme court ruling that corporations are people and money is speech.
The United States Constitution does not explicitly mention corporations, but corporations have gained rights and protections under several constitutional provisions, including:
The Commerce Clause
Grants Congress the power to regulate commerce among states, with foreign nations, and with Indian tribes
The Contracts Clause
Addresses debtor relief laws and bars states from "impairing the obligation of contracts"
The Fourteenth Amendment
The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are "persons" under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
The First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Amendments
The Supreme Court has recognized that corporations may litigate rights under these amendments
The Supreme Court's 1819 ruling in the Dartmouth case granted "private" business corporations constitutional protection from government interference in their internal governance. The landmark Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific case extended equal protection to corporations under the Fourteenth Amendment.
But only by a head note, inserted by the law clerk, J C Bancroft who was the former president of the Newburgh and New York Railway Company.
A headnote is not a court ruling, but SCOTUS has interpreted it to be such.
The problem started with Marbury v Madison, when Chief Justice Marshall assumed the power of judiciary review, then Santa Clara, then Buckley v. Veleo, then 1st National bank of Boston v. Belotti, and culminating in Citizens United.
Tom van Doormaal: I live in a Republican controlled state, a state where people when talking about the American Civil War say, "Oh, you mean the War of Northern Aggression". Increasing the power of the state would accomplish nothing here.
Increasing the power of the state is the wrong scheme of thinking. It is not more or less power, because that leads us tot the battle of freedom versus communism. We should learn to debate about the things Bob tells us. His sincerity shows how little we can.
The battle with communism ended decades ago. Now it is the battle between freedom and fascism. Trump may not be a fascists, but many the people who support him are.
While I agree with you that depression will not help fix the problem, I am going to take a moment to just be really really sad about the levels of cruelty we're seeing in pursuit of a few dollars....where $6 is too much to spend to keep your workers safe. My own dependence on Amazon is an example of how hard it is to fight back while I am bedridden and have so few options. I deplore the company's abuses, but still spend at least $300 a month on supplies and digital content. Where else can I get free delivery and kindle content so I don't lose my mind while stuck in bed? I boycott Walmart because I worked there until I was disabled and they treated me horribly. They are doing just fine without me.
You move me by the fate that confronts you so much with the morality of businesses. But like I reacted to Barbara, you fate is not to be solved by discussions on freedom or communism, only by a call for decency.
Paula, you have my sympathy. Thee is nothing wrong with Amazon. The problem is with its owner, and the government that allowed him to get away with it.
I find it frustrating that there are times when I, too, must use Amazon because there are no other options. (I have a disability) I have boycotted Walmart and have shopped there twice since its inception - because I was in towns with no other option. I share your sadness. This continued abuse of people is downright feudal. I refer to all of it as the Walmartization of America.
Many have no choice but to use Amazon because of where they live, unless they want to make a two hour round trip when they need a striker plate for the door, or food that their local general store or market doesn't carry, or even underwear, shoes or socks.
Just ask the corporate-brain-dirtied public, who are constantly assailed with high-dollar propaganda (a huge business in itself) driving home how much Big Business cares about them. Ask the millions who watch the Stupor Bowl for the commercials. Ask the schools and other public institutions who depend on corporate "partners" for much of their operating revenue. On and on it goes. The corporate intrusion into the public psyche is virtually complete and ineradicable. Never stop fighting, if only to retain your own integrity and freedom of thought.
In any economic system, greed and fear rule. The Bridgestone executives chose to endanger their employees, perhaps fear of losing their own jobs and paychecks, perhaps greed for promotions and larger paychecks. It was individual people making decisions and revealing their own values and integrity. A company isn't a living person, despite the SCOTUS ruling. A company is people with choices.
The bottomliners know it’s cheaper to run the risk of making faulty airliners than to pay better wages and benefits. Thank the venture capitalist bean counters for them apples.
The only choice a limited liability company has is to make money or go out of business. But We the people, through out government, do have choices. Vote!
In the 1980s, I worked for a major defense contractor. As I walked through the production facility, I noticed increasing numbers of workers (all of them women) who had bandaged wrists — a sign of carpal tunnel syndrome. These were production-line workers who performed highly repetitive movements in assembling missiles. The plant’s safety and health manager explained to me that installing machinery that would prevent carpal tunnel syndrome would cost more than the bill for workers’ compensation insurance — and so the company decided to do nothing to improve conditions on the assembly line. Capitalism in action.
Capitalism which is regulated works just fine. There seems to be a carte blanche profession of faith on the left that capitalism is an evil.
Everything unchecked and unregulated is evil.
Government can be good, government can be evil.
Socialism can be good, socialism can be evil (the USSR for example)
Capitalism is a system which enables a person to invest their time, labor and resources into an endeavor which enables them to make a living and a profit.
Where it not for capitalism, neither you nor I would be able to sit in a comfortable chair and pontificate on a cell phone or computer.
In fact none of us would be alive, and those that were would be serfs or commoners dependent on overlords for our very existence, especially American citizens, because the country we call the U.S.A. started in 1606 with a charter given to a group of wealthy merchants and lesser nobility,given by King James I, to the London Company of Virginia, to explore and expoit for silver and gold, that part of the New World from what was Roanoke to Maine called Virginia.
The London Company of Virginia, was a joint venture stock company, what we call today capitalist, and it's investors were called adventurers.
There were adventurers of purse, investors, and adventurers of persons who sailed into the Chesapeake Bay, with indentured servants in tow.
Good point, William. Our billionaires want to be as free as those adventurers of yore, but times have changed. We must produce a set of Ten Corporate Commandments that will tell them what they can and what they cannot do.Our very survival is at stake.
Thank you for this, Stan. As Dr. Reich relates, the corporate bottom line rules when profits are stacked up versus workers' lives. What's the matter with Oklahoma is the same as 'What's the Matter with Kansas' (Book by Thomas Frank). The major meat processing cartels that rule that state's economy never blinked over a few limbs chopped off their production workers, since they are beyond any threat of closure by government. The Republican pols are in their pockets, and the workers in the western Kansas towns are stuck with the cartels since they have driven small farms and co-ops out of competition long ago. Same putrid scenario exists across the South and much of the Plains States, and the Midwest. Reasons that foreign and domestic automakers have moved plants to the Deep South are super-cheap labor,
and inability of U.S. and state government to enforce safety regs. These plants have some of our most brutal safety records (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and others). Relating to Thomas Hobbes' 'Leviathan' book, mega-corporations have usurped control of government from 'The People' to corporations taken to be people by legal doctrine (U.S. Supreme Court, 2014). The corporate megalith has become the modern Hobbesian Leviathan unchained, and with this the lives of ordinary people become more "poor, nasty, brutish, and short" (Hobbes). We need to kick the right- wing demagogues from power or we are sunk.
P.S. I am done with Bridgestone tires, which fell apart for me anyway, and with burgers from major meat packers, which will give you Donald Trump's disease.
Stan, thank you for sharing this important story. Had the company done the decent thing it might have failed due to competition with other, less decent, companies. Capitalist apologists would have called it "constructive destruction, " an obvious oxymoron This is why government regulation is necessary...
I suspect that the DoD customer for the missiles may have played a role in this example of disregard for worker safety. (I can’t say for sure because I didn’t work in the Contracts Dept.) The government might have been reluctant to issue an amendment to the contract that would have allowed the price for each missile to rise, reflecting the cost of new tooling.
The lesser side of human nature is exposed in these choices. We’ve had the freedom to choose differently for years but when our national trinity is money, speed and convenience we shouldn’t be surprised with these consequences.
However the rank and file MAGAt knows that he will never be the MFWIC of the Kingdom,. nor even a baron , but he can be the lord of the manor, his own personal manor, where the man is the king of his own personal castle and fiefdom, and he is willing to settle for that, with no threat from pesky self validating females, queers, people of color
This even includes men of color like Mark Robinson, Clarence Thomas, Herschel Walker, Kanye who believe that their wealth and status bestows immunity and privilege.
There were a lot of black slave owning planters in South Carolina and Louisiana who had the same thought, until the Nat Turner Rebellion of 1831, then they found themselves stripped of their plantations, their wealth and re enslaved.
Fair warning, William. European Roma (gypsies) knew that they were despised. Even so they insisted in keeping their peculiar customs, despite the discrimination. They never imagined what National Socialism would do to them.
People never believe the worst until it happens. Jews were well informed what was in store for them, but most stayed they didn't want to give up their home and treasures.
The fear of the unknown, of change is powerful. Powerful enough to create the MAGA movement.
Look around you at all of the progressives and soon to be oppressed if Trump wins, living in denial and deluding themselves that this election is really no different than previous, they even delude themselves, despite all of the evidence, that Jan 6th was a one off.
Do we just give up? Resign to live in concentration camps?
We actually have moved much beyond that time. We do still have a middle class and we do have houses that only the kings and queens of old could dream about.
Great story. Very interesting. I wonder if Bridgestone was considering off-shoring before the press conference?
I doubt the two Reps at the meeting could make the decision to close the plant, unless it had already been discussed by other Bridgestone leaders. I suppose the workers didn't have a union that could address the serious safety issue. Besides increasing wages, unions protect workers' safety.
What if consumes banded together to make a union that supports good American jobs? Before we buy products like tires, we could check the guide to see what tires are union made and have the best worker safety and paid the best wages. Perhaps unions can form a non-,profit to rate products. Buy American, support American workers and good American companies for stronger communities.
It's not capitalism gone rogue. It's what capitalism is ultimately all about. Creating wealth for investors by consuming resources, and workers are simply one more commodity to be chewed up and spit out. Killing / maiming them isn't the intent but an acceptable "cost of doing business."
These are the personal protections that our founders worried about when granting “corporate” charters that provide personal protection from liability to members of a corporation. Original corporate charters, if I recall correctly, were granted for specific time periods and had to be re-issued, based on the performance of the corporation. Of course, if people don’t elect representatives who have their BEST interests in mind, things like that go by the wayside.
I advocate for decent laws that serve to rein in the worst of the greed in capitalism, but when money is speech and people fall for the lies … mmmmph.
Of course not … Most of us think we have laws in place against such things … Except, of course, the death penalty … {for the record, I’m not in favor of the death penalty, either}.
Efforts to minimize the costs of safety vs "efficiency" are overshadowed by the apparent reality that for many industrial jobs there are now machines, outperforming humans and making safety irrelevant. From installing auto windshields, as in the movie, to teamsters unloading ships. With the development of AI many other jobs will be redefined irrespective of their physical demands and most people will need to redifine themselves.
Corporate Greed and voting for a Republican candidate, who beams and smirks with Pride, capital P about being a wealthy, rich, with a capital R for Republican they Must vote for because of everything he’s doing for them? Like these Corporate Leaders in this Horrible All too Common Example? That’s why these Corporations and their Leaders are backing Donald and JD Vance folks, he’s Making Americans Like Them Wealthier - NOT You! He Didn’t his last time around, that bump in Your Prosperity was from results of his Predecessor, coming due, scheming Donnie just took credit, scumbag that he his. Vote Blue! Get What’s Yours! Really and Truly!
We are right in assigning different values to different kinds of work, bur are we right in assigning different values to different individuals, different value to body parts of different individuals? Perhaps we should assign absolute values to life and to body parts.
Caterpillar Tractor Co. has also had some horrific employee accidents.
Also, among the most horrific accidents to happen to laborers are farm accidents, including the oft-reported incidents where a farm worker falls into a silo full of grain and can't be rescued. Hard to imagine a more horrible accident.
Indeed. People power is a very powerful lobby. In these cases, it may be the only way to curtail these cruel corporations. Stop buying from them. Support small, independent businesses. Keep it local where possible.
Businesses are regulated -- not just by DOL and OSHA - but mainly via state laws like workers' compensation laws. In red states, these are mostly toothless.
IMHO these should be uniform. A worker injured in say, Texas, has little chance of receiving anything close to compensation compared to workers injured in blue states.
It gets complicated. When I saw "install a simple $6 device that would automatically cut off power to the machines whenever a worker wanted to lock them down to clean or repair them, but the company wouldn’t budge" it reminds me that the company exposure may have been limited to state workers; compensation which does not include damage awards for pain and suffering, and thus the cost of the insurance which may be negligible. But potentially if the machines are defective, workers might be entitled to damages under strict liability theory, under Restatement of Torts section 402A, liable for not only pain and suffering, but punitive damages that could be catastrophic in a single instance.
Agreed, Daniel. If we are to be One People we must be unified by the same esteem of human rights. Federal Law is the Supreme law of the land, no matter what Roberts and Co. say.
The LOSER of the 2020 Presidential Election is really losing it!
Trump is finally the King he always wanted to be! Trump is the KING of DISINFORMATION :
The definition of DISINFORMATION: deliberately misleading information with the intent to manipulate.
Trump’s lies about FEMA’s ability to provide emergency assistance to the victims of hurricane Helene are disgustingly false and dangerous. Trump’s Project 2025, The far-right blueprint for the next Republican administration, would gut FEMA! And it would disband the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), agencies responsible for predicting hurricanes!
He is desperate and will do anything to try and win on November 5th. His despicable supporters in Congress are, right now, looking for ways to keep him in power even though they know he is an LUNATIC and a WEIRDO!
(Trump is a total disgrace and a traitor to Democracy and a traitor to America!)
He is a puppet. Just wind him up and let him talk. He is being used by 2025, Thiell, Musk, Koch Bros.. the oligarchs..Trump is their organ grinder's monkey...he does it for the attention...he has no actual political agenda himself.
Recently Substack "A Hurricane of Lies" written by the internationally known Dan Rather comes right into this subject, I strongly recommend as a must read
tRUMP will gin up violence and anger at the wrong targets ; The ones who would help instead of the problem greed heads and power mongers (like himself), who are the real threat. That they are demonizing those who fight for the Common Good is their special evil "talent". What They do is what is indefensible ; unless they can lie. point their fingers at the good guys, and direct the rage away from themselves.
Extortion by corporations is a sad, hideous, outcome of toxic capitalism. Ii is horrible that workers in dangerous occupations have to choose between injury or death, or lose their livelihood. Project 2025 would abolish OSHA, and work to ban any safety and health regulations. Just so oligarchs can continue to reap bigger profits. They regard their workers as expendable cogs in a machine. Many remedies can alleviate this cruelty. One is to tax obscene wealth, with no exemptions or loopholes, at a rate rising higher for every million in annual income. We need fair income balances, and a restoration of a middle class. Which class should be the lowest income bracket, not the middle one. Poverty is a feature in toxic capitalism.
It is sad and hideous, but it is also an inevitable result. Capitalism has not changed or altered or evolved since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, corporations and banks and executives such as Carl Icahn just realized it's full potential.
But Robert got public attention on the problem, and I'm guessing Bridgestone was more aware and cautious about keeping employees safe, at least for a while.
In hospital nursing, especially in critical care areas, the injury rate was nearly as high as that of construction workers. The repetitive stress back injuries from lifting patients not only affected the nurses but also the quality of patient care. Hospital administrators were forced to replace a critical care nurse within seven years in the 1990s, a situation that was exacerbated by the understaffing that forced nurses to work too fast and lift with too few nurses to prevent injuries.
Lifting a patient is not like lifting a stable load because they move in unexpected ways. Usually, only two of us lift adult patients, about 70 pounds or more for each nurse. There was a hydraulic lift available on another unit, but it took too long to get it and took longer to use than lift without it.
Nurses pay for their own education, so ending a career, even with a worker's compensation settlement, made nursing not worth it 30 years ago. It wasn't even the money; entry to practice became a BSN, so it was at least four years of your life. I don't know what it's like to work in a hospital now, but I hear that nurses receive more injuries from hostile patients than in the past. Exposure to infections is ongoing, and when I spread contagious respiratory infections to my children, I had no time off for my sick family, so I had to use personal days to care for them and work sick myself.
It's unfortunately true that workers would rather work in unsafe conditions than have no job. Isn't capitalism in the U.S. great?
My daughter started college planning to be a nurse, but after learning how thankless and dangerous it would be, she switched majors - earning a Masters in Art. Now in her 40's, she works as a security guard at an art museum in Boston. You know what they say about 'best laid plans'!
One of the primary reasons my partner and I switched hospital systems in New York City was the nursing care, and we're happy that we did. Geographically, it's a drag to travel across town(think about all that untaxed traffic congestion) but it's worth it. Especially when you are very sick.
The UK legislated a crime of Corporate Manslaughter after a terrible train wreck which was entirely avoidable, a result of extreme and repeated corporate negligence
Ah! But under UK law the senior managers can also find themselves personally criminally liable if they allow unsafe practices. Jail terms are in view. That focuses the mind beautifully.
I'd guess that curtailing what a private company can do under the law would be struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. Private citizens can be curtailed 7 ways to Sunday about what they can do with their property (except their guns), but private corporations are as untouchable as the federal courts themselves.
The courts have upheld that you can't fire workers (or, I think, close a facility) in response to union organizing activity. But the entire Constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board, not just its regulations, is being challenged after 80 years of existence, and this Supreme Court might just go along with that view.
I remember covering a shareholders meeting of a small company which made gearbox castings for jet engines. The chair of the company in the informal gathering after the main business, noted to a group of shareholders that it was an advantage to have the plant in a small rural town where they were the main employer. The advantage was people wouldn’t complain about environmental infractions since their jobs, or the jobs of family and friends were dependent on the plant’s continued presence.
Thank you, Professor Reich for sharing this story with us. You are correct, we need to slap them with fines so stiff that even shutting down a plant like that will cost more than installing the safety to protect workers. Money is the only thing those people understand,
No, I think power is what they most care about. It would cost them a lot of money to close a plant and relocate its functions, but they'd rather do that than lose the power that being able to do it gives them.
Damned if you do damned if you don’t! The power that Corporations have is a disgrace ! Blackmail is one of their most potent! Laws must be enforced and the corporate blackmail must be punished! Reminds me of the stories my grandpa told me about the company stores and towns in Canada in the last century..the pure unchecked power of the companies to do what ever they wanted without a care for the safety of the miners !
This is massively dystopian and hits hard. The right-wingers here in Australia are constantly trying to chip away at the social security nets to bring about these sorts of outcomes.
That’s the problem. There is no real leverage with these companies. Threaten them with fines, and they leave. You fully explained the problem, but you did not outline a solution. Is there a solution?
Many facilities I go to hauling rental equipment now embrace a simple thing called lock out tag out. When a worker needs to perform a maintenance function he puts his lock on so the machine can’t be used until he is done. (He/she). Likely this the cheap fix referred to as
A consumers' union that scored companies so consumers could support the companies who support labor and boycott the bad companies. People have a lot of options when it comes to things like tires. It's a race to the bottom now. But a consumers union could make it a race to the top.
Workers should not have to be maimed or even killed before there is an outcry to have better protections against harm in the workplace. Maybe the managers /(manglers), Hell, the owners should have to spend some time working in the dangerous areas. It's telling when workers are actually attacking those who would keep them safe. Because the thugs have made it more attractive to risk death or injury before having to risk losing their "livelihoods". If only the tables could be turned against the perpetrators of this kind of abomination.
I wish consumers had a union and scored companies on their wages to workers, worker loyalty, workplace safety, long- term investments, union support and other factors for responsible management.
If consumers knew how companies stacked up for workers and communities, we could support the good companies and boycott the bad companies. Companies like Bridgestone would be more likely to respect workers.
Danny Piper : When I see a new Volkswagen I immediately think about the scandal that their tech design people caused when they skirted environmental protections with bad emission work arounds The Volkswagen "beetle" was an icon of the 60's. It seemed a betrayal when the story came out. I don't believe I would buy one now, no matter how slick their advertising is.
A boycott threat could prevent the kind-of wage theft and mistreatment of workers, and things like cheating on emissions technology, that worsens harm to our environment.
A Trump presidency would cater to corporations, let's get Harris elected. Social media is likely a big influence on this election. Everyone is welcome to re-post the following or make it better and post:
Please, vote for Democracy. Vote for Harris.
This election is bigger than the individual issues. Trump lost the 2020 election. He went to court numerous times to contest the election; he lost every time. He tried to overthrow the election results. He still says he won and will prosecute those who he says cheated. Trump says he will fire government workers and replace them with people loyal to him.
Instead of having him on trial to overthrow the 2020 election before this election, the Supreme Court has delayed his trial and has given him more presidential immunity. Most of the media is owned by big money and favors big money interest like more tax cuts for the wealthy. If Trump wins, there is not much, if anything, to stop him from becoming a dictator. He admires Putin and the dictator of Hungary Viktor Orban. He has the will and the skill to be a dictator.
As Ben Franklin told a woman: You have a Republic, if you can keep it. Let’s keep our Republic, please vote for Harris.
Excepts from The Hartmann Report:
In the few short years after he was elected, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, now fabulously wealthy by Hungarian standards and an oligarch himself, succeeded in transforming his nation’s government from a functioning European democracy into an autocratic and oligarchic regime of single-party neofascist rule.
Orbán took over the Fidesz Party, once a conventional “conservative” political party like the GOP, with the slogans “Restore Christian purity” and “Make Hungary great again.” His rallies regularly drew tens of thousands.
He altered his nation’s Constitution to enable what we’d call gerrymandering and voter suppression in much the same way Republicans are now doing across Red State America, ensuring that his party, Fidesz, would win control in pretty much every election well into the future.
Orbán has handed government contracts to his favored few, elevating an entire group of pro-Orbán businessmen (it appears all are men) who have now seized complete control of the nation’s economy. Those who opposed him have lost their businesses, been forced to sell their companies, and often fled the country. Some are in prison.
Virtually all of Hungary’s press is now in the hands of oligarchs and corporations loyal to Orbán, with hard-right talk radio and television across the country singing his praises daily. Progressive media is functionally banned. Billboards and social media proclaim Orbán’s patriotism.
If you want to see Trump’s and the GOP’s vision of America’s future, just look at what Orbán’s done to Hungary.
Forewarned is forearmed. Spread the word. Feel free to re post.
What a depressing, and all too real story. Capitalism gone rogue.
Amen to that, David. We’ve reached the age of predatory capitalism. People know it, but the GOP’s massive deception campaign has confused many about who benefits. And the profitable business of war and climate destruction continues.
Mary Ellen Sinkiewicz : They want to defund NOAA so the data cannot be compiled to show actual relationships between fossil fuel use and increasing weather disasters. All this time after Jan 6, there are finally unredacted documents showing tRUMP's intent. They want to block the truth in every way. Facts are hard to ignore. The truth could set US free.
Mary Ellen - capitalism has always been predatory. Capitalism is based on theft of time, labor, resources. It is worshipped more fervently than any god.
UNREGULATED Capitalism.
Cars will kill you, too, if there are no rules for how they’re used … Let’s not be so simplistic about all this.
UNREGULATED Capitalism is greedy and predatory. Regulated capitalism can be just fine, but we need to understand that.
Pat - capitalism is very near a zero sum game. because of our lifestyle, others lack. Capitalism has its roots in mercantilism of the 15th and 16th centuries, when white europeans started sending ships out to plunder (yes plunder) the labor and resources of the world not yet colonized by white europeans. this plundering was sanctioned by the catholic church as long as it also entailed converting the heathens. if the heathens wouldn't submit, slavery or death were perfectly acceptable outcomes. in our hemisphere we see the direct consequences of this in the migration from the fruit company ravages of 130 years in central america, as they stole the land and labor (enslaved) from the inhabitants. the US army was frequently brought in to restore "order" when people rebelled against having their land, labor, and resources stolen. this is capitalism. it is based on free (slave, as in america) or cheap labor and free (stolen) resources. this activity has been cloaked in fine phrases such as "national security" or "national interests", but is always about profit and the power that accrues with money. now the problem for me is that I benefit from this arrangement. i like my standard of living, my pension, my paid off house and reasonable health. how do i reconcile my beliefs and my comfort? i don't know. i guess i advocate for redistribution of the obscene weatlh at the top, and even at the lower levels of wealth. I don't believe anyone needs more than a million dollars, especially if we had universal healthcare, universal comprehensive education, and all the other needs that could be easily met in a moral society. why just think - if all the '' christians" practiced what they preach.
there is enough for everyone's needs, but not nearly enough for everyone's greed. lastly poverty is violence and is a policy choice.
You describe human migration and cultural interaction and place that at the heart of “capitalism”? I think that is all too simplistic, and leads us down an angry rabbit hole that offers NO solutions.
Capitalism is based on “private” ownership of industry and trade for profit. That’s WAY too loose, so structure needs to be in place, to prevent things like profiting from grifting people with frauds and inferior products, not to mention anti-trust to prevent excessive accumulation of wealth that allows those with money to victimize those with less. Structure to prevent exploiting labor by siphoning profit only to the top, leaving the actual creators of “value” to struggle for their daily bread. {I think FDR understood all this …so did Teddy, to an extent.}
What countries did centuries ago need not define what we do now. How we structure our world, our economies, ownership and sharing the resources needed to make things and provide services, as well as the profit from making and selling those things and services … that is what I’m talking about. We don’t have to leave “ownership” as “unfettered” … And we don’t leave it unfettered. We have a lot of fences. Mostly on industry …Not enough on money and finance.
People might not like my bringing her up, but Sen. Eliz.Warren had a plan to protect consumers from the some of the power of financial over-reach, The Consumer FINANCIAL Protection Bureau, but Obama was told he could not have the bureau with her in charge, so they put someone else in charge and pretty much castrated the Bureau. {He gave in to Wall Street far too much — possibly because he was so new to national politics that he did not have the network of allies he needed to resist them — He had way too many Wall Street and Clinton centrist types in his cabinet. He had other things foisted on him, too, like the ACA with insurance companies at its heart, and refusal to address his court appointments.}
What I see is a need to identify our structural shortcomings and address them… I see us arguing against broad descriptions of something that needs to be seen much closer to the bone — and needs to be seen regarding its nitty-gritty functionality. Analyze our economic structure, and work on making it better.
We have the skills. And skilled people. Of course, they’ll call it “socialism,” but it’s not. Although a touch of socialism added to capitalism makes for a much better financial stew. If only we could help people understand which side their bread is buttered on. {Stew, bread, butter … it does all come down to that in the end. The bread-and-butter issues…}
What are YOUR solutions? Serious, real-world, function-on-a-national and international-scale solutions?
Well said, Paul. Poverty is a policy choice, seldom a personal choice. Poverty has hidden costs, even the wealthy pay those costs.
Over 100 years ago Marxism was workers controlling the means of production. Now , workers who want safety regulations and a living wage are called "Marxists" or stretching it out more, Communists..How things have changed.
dear paul : fantastic essay. I figure maybe 10 million dollars. Thank You for your fine work. Daniel Slade
On a spectrum ranging from 1 to 10 where Capitalism is 1 and Regulated Capitalism 10, we are at 3 maybe 4. The GOP thinks we’re at 12, so do those in the “matrix”.
In the place of “regulation,” if that word is a sticking point, say “unstructured” then. But our system of capitalism has too few fences, for sure. I like private ownrship and entrepreneurial energy, and group ownership and labor cooperatives .. lots of ways to do a thing … with rules and structure and expectations and “fences” that protect the public from exploitation…
The GOP thinks we are at 12 in industrial regulation.
We are barely at 3 or 4 in financial regulation.
Yeah, I know it’s hard. That’s why our founders thought we needed universal education. The only way to have a democracy is to have an educated population, and an informed one that can understand these issues and a skosh of nuance.
The opposition to Democracy knows that. Why else are they trying to destroy education and the media.
It’s way too easy to destroy. So hard to build.
I’m trying NOTto give up, which is what they want us to do.
[For the record, if not a structured and regulated capitalist system, what do you propose?]
Yes, it is so hard to build, so easy to destroy. When we are angry we want to destroy. As we can see from our own experience, a society with lots of angry people becomes a self-wreaking society. Trump and his supporters want to destroy, and promise us to return to a past that never existed. Any one who supports Trump is delusional.
The threat to move operations from one state to another, mandatory arbitration and right-to-work laws make regulation unlikely. The Marxists called for a dictatorship of the proletariat. The libertarians want a dictatorship of capitalists. FDR said No to dictatorship, and he advised us to fear not but fear itself.
There is no such thing, in reality, as a “dictatorship” of the proletariat.
There has never been an ACTUAL whole country run on “communist” principles. The only communist societies I am aware of are the Kibbutzim, and they are small enough to function democratically along communist lines.
You get to a “communist” country like Russia or Korea or any of the others, and you get a despot in control of the government that runs everything and the people get what the autocrat in control says they get … Not much different from the Fascists, where the government is in cahoots with business, and the oligarchs decide what the people can have. In the end, it’s a despot and businesses that prevail, and the people get in line or get in trouble.
I don’t see much difference between a despotic fascist regime or a despotic communist regime. At the top are powerful people {men, typically} who live high off the hog and call all the shots, and then all the people who get the work done, and they’d better not rock the boat, if they know what’s good for them.
I’d be happy with some stronger democratically enacted laws that call for fair pay pegged to corporate profits, shared among managers, shareholders, AND the labor that gave rise to the revenues in the first place … And environmental decency. And fair taxation. And use of our taxes for the benefit of our citizens, and the people in the world we deem need help.
We could structure our capitalism that way, if people were willing …
Even if we were to adapt to an economy based on sustainability (everything gets recycled), Republicans would be happy to observe that even under a sustainable premise, CEOs could still get their undeserved bonuses! I suspect there’s a built-in prejudice among most people that favors the beautiful (Hollywood) and the talented and wants to shower rewards on them, deserved or not. This piece of human nature is difficult to overcome and possibly impervious to reform. Think about the many images of the Virgin Mary that have been produced in the past 2,000 years: according to the artist, she’s a very comely young lady. What was her actual appearance? Ditto for her son. How many of us believe that he resembled Max von Sydow? I’ll bet he resembled Groucho Marx.
DeTocqueville said that America had two religions Capitalism and Christianity and that they were opposed to each other if properly practiced He did not know which one would prevail but it is obvious which one did Capitalism has not only virtually eliminated authentic Christianity it actually coopted it so that for many Christians Social Darwinism has replaced the Gospel Capitalism is hostile to any spiritually based movement It thrives on denying that there is another life beyond this one and it says the richer you are the better person you are and how you get your money is irrelevant The only thing important in life is maximizing your income
Some of the most successful capitalists were deeply religious. They tended to be protestants. They also tended to save, invest, and support charitable work. None of them worked for limited liability corporations, in so far as I know.
Capitalism is the best economic system in terms of efficiency so Socialism is not the answer but Capitalism needs to be regulatedand it needs to be regulated by an authentic Christianity that condemns greed and any oppression of workers or any other human beings but that kind of Christianity is almost totally non existent in contemporary America
A limited liability corporation is a money-making machine. It has no soul, no conscience. The individuals who run them are expected to deliver; if they do not they are replaced. We are all complicit in whatever wrongs they commit.
Regulated by Christianity? How about regulated by fairness and concern for your fellow man. Religion has been the largest cause of death in the history of the world. Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, Hindu, etc etc. pick your poison. Spirituality is a different thing altogether.
Religion has always been about money and accumulation of wealth for those at the top. Sounds a little like capitalism but without all the bother of actually earning the money.
Theft with prayers is something even Jesus warned us about.
🤔😱🤯
❤️Reich❤️:"The next morning’s Daily Oklahoman used my expedition as an illustration of the worst sort of meddling from Washington. In a bitter editorial, it accused me of grandstanding for political purposes. Its front-page story quoted angry tire workers..."
see Dr. Festinger's "When Prophecy Fails"...or better yet...my definition of "Militant Placeboees"... or better yet... ""THE MATRIX"...
https://youtu.be/YgJ5ZEn67tk?t=18
"That system is our enemy...The very minds of the people we are trying to save...these people are a part of that system...most of these people are not ready to be unplugged...so hopelessly dependent on the system...that they will fight to protect it."--Morpheus explains how innocent seeming people will suddenly morph into desperate defenders of the oppressive system🤔😱🤯... just as a baby accepts a swapping of placebos when "Moms replace baby's filthy thumb with a sterile pacifier"
Note: up to 60% of anxiety lab... lab subjects were cured by placebo.... aka 60% of Americans may suddenly morph into desperate defenders of the oppressive system🤔😱🤯
🤔😱🤯In case you are "MATRIX illiterate"...
https://youtu.be/XwM7SWJ6dr0?t=328
❤️Reich❤️:"Workers were getting maimed and killed...I felt righteousness coursing through my veins."
Scientists found viewing suffering can cause the human body to produce oxytocin. Production of oxytocin causes "❤️bonding❤️," etc. ... :
https://books.google.com/books?id=U21BxGfm3RUC&pg=PA271
"Evolution has often reused oxytocin to forge other kinds of bonds."
Make a difference today. https://www.mobilize.us/events/phone-bank-volunteer-opportunities/
TY forwarded to msny
The problem is that both parties are dependent upon political contributions from corporations and their PACs, and lobbyists. Till money is taken out of politics, the problem persists.
William, you are our Amos.
Am I foretelling the end of America? If so I sure have a shitload of companions.
Here is a sample: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-cataclysmic-post-election-scenario
By the way if the Republicans control the House after Jan 3rd, and the election is hung up by the electoral college and the shenanigans of the Republicans. The whole election goes to the Congress, each state gets one vote and guess which states have the most votes
William, in theory I agree with you. However, in reality, even if by some magic, corporate political monies were mandated to a minimum, what do you think the big cheeses at those companies would do with that money; give it to their workers, to philanthropic causes or pay the taxes, they rightfully owe the government? Answer: none of the above-those millions and billions would go right back into their pockets. To fight lawsuits for corporate malfeasance yet another day. Sorry to be so dark, but it’s getting uncomfortably close to elections.
The top income tax rate reached above 90% from 1944 through 1963, peaking in 1944, when top taxpayers paid an income tax rate of 94% on their taxable income. Starting in 1964, a period of income tax rate decline began, ending in 1987.
Returning to those tax rates, for people and corporations is the way to eliminate the power of money in politics.
Here is a sad truth, democracy contains the seeds of i'ts own destruction.
I believe it was bin Laden who said we will use your freedoms to destroy you.
Even if it wasn't, tis true. Why are we under threat of a fascist dictatorship?
Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, right to bear arms, our supreme court ruling that corporations are people and money is speech.
The United States Constitution does not explicitly mention corporations, but corporations have gained rights and protections under several constitutional provisions, including:
The Commerce Clause
Grants Congress the power to regulate commerce among states, with foreign nations, and with Indian tribes
The Contracts Clause
Addresses debtor relief laws and bars states from "impairing the obligation of contracts"
The Fourteenth Amendment
The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are "persons" under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
The First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Amendments
The Supreme Court has recognized that corporations may litigate rights under these amendments
The Supreme Court's 1819 ruling in the Dartmouth case granted "private" business corporations constitutional protection from government interference in their internal governance. The landmark Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific case extended equal protection to corporations under the Fourteenth Amendment.
But only by a head note, inserted by the law clerk, J C Bancroft who was the former president of the Newburgh and New York Railway Company.
A headnote is not a court ruling, but SCOTUS has interpreted it to be such.
The problem started with Marbury v Madison, when Chief Justice Marshall assumed the power of judiciary review, then Santa Clara, then Buckley v. Veleo, then 1st National bank of Boston v. Belotti, and culminating in Citizens United.
Stepping stones.
No room for depression; problem is how to raise the power of state control, inspection and oversight.
Tom van Doormaal: I live in a Republican controlled state, a state where people when talking about the American Civil War say, "Oh, you mean the War of Northern Aggression". Increasing the power of the state would accomplish nothing here.
Increasing the power of the state is the wrong scheme of thinking. It is not more or less power, because that leads us tot the battle of freedom versus communism. We should learn to debate about the things Bob tells us. His sincerity shows how little we can.
The battle with communism ended decades ago. Now it is the battle between freedom and fascism. Trump may not be a fascists, but many the people who support him are.
While I agree with you that depression will not help fix the problem, I am going to take a moment to just be really really sad about the levels of cruelty we're seeing in pursuit of a few dollars....where $6 is too much to spend to keep your workers safe. My own dependence on Amazon is an example of how hard it is to fight back while I am bedridden and have so few options. I deplore the company's abuses, but still spend at least $300 a month on supplies and digital content. Where else can I get free delivery and kindle content so I don't lose my mind while stuck in bed? I boycott Walmart because I worked there until I was disabled and they treated me horribly. They are doing just fine without me.
You move me by the fate that confronts you so much with the morality of businesses. But like I reacted to Barbara, you fate is not to be solved by discussions on freedom or communism, only by a call for decency.
Paula, you have my sympathy. Thee is nothing wrong with Amazon. The problem is with its owner, and the government that allowed him to get away with it.
Alas, Walmart carries some products that Amazon doesn't.
I find it frustrating that there are times when I, too, must use Amazon because there are no other options. (I have a disability) I have boycotted Walmart and have shopped there twice since its inception - because I was in towns with no other option. I share your sadness. This continued abuse of people is downright feudal. I refer to all of it as the Walmartization of America.
Many have no choice but to use Amazon because of where they live, unless they want to make a two hour round trip when they need a striker plate for the door, or food that their local general store or market doesn't carry, or even underwear, shoes or socks.
Just ask the corporate-brain-dirtied public, who are constantly assailed with high-dollar propaganda (a huge business in itself) driving home how much Big Business cares about them. Ask the millions who watch the Stupor Bowl for the commercials. Ask the schools and other public institutions who depend on corporate "partners" for much of their operating revenue. On and on it goes. The corporate intrusion into the public psyche is virtually complete and ineradicable. Never stop fighting, if only to retain your own integrity and freedom of thought.
In any economic system, greed and fear rule. The Bridgestone executives chose to endanger their employees, perhaps fear of losing their own jobs and paychecks, perhaps greed for promotions and larger paychecks. It was individual people making decisions and revealing their own values and integrity. A company isn't a living person, despite the SCOTUS ruling. A company is people with choices.
Like the Boeing shareholders? They could be satisfied with less gains and better airliners.
The bottomliners know it’s cheaper to run the risk of making faulty airliners than to pay better wages and benefits. Thank the venture capitalist bean counters for them apples.
General strike May 1st, 2028. Pass it on.
The only choice a limited liability company has is to make money or go out of business. But We the people, through out government, do have choices. Vote!
Not so much rogue capitalism, as capitalism taken to its natural conclusion.
In the 1980s, I worked for a major defense contractor. As I walked through the production facility, I noticed increasing numbers of workers (all of them women) who had bandaged wrists — a sign of carpal tunnel syndrome. These were production-line workers who performed highly repetitive movements in assembling missiles. The plant’s safety and health manager explained to me that installing machinery that would prevent carpal tunnel syndrome would cost more than the bill for workers’ compensation insurance — and so the company decided to do nothing to improve conditions on the assembly line. Capitalism in action.
UNREGULATED Capitalism in action.
Exactly...
Which is capitalism.
Capitalism which is regulated works just fine. There seems to be a carte blanche profession of faith on the left that capitalism is an evil.
Everything unchecked and unregulated is evil.
Government can be good, government can be evil.
Socialism can be good, socialism can be evil (the USSR for example)
Capitalism is a system which enables a person to invest their time, labor and resources into an endeavor which enables them to make a living and a profit.
Where it not for capitalism, neither you nor I would be able to sit in a comfortable chair and pontificate on a cell phone or computer.
In fact none of us would be alive, and those that were would be serfs or commoners dependent on overlords for our very existence, especially American citizens, because the country we call the U.S.A. started in 1606 with a charter given to a group of wealthy merchants and lesser nobility,given by King James I, to the London Company of Virginia, to explore and expoit for silver and gold, that part of the New World from what was Roanoke to Maine called Virginia.
The London Company of Virginia, was a joint venture stock company, what we call today capitalist, and it's investors were called adventurers.
There were adventurers of purse, investors, and adventurers of persons who sailed into the Chesapeake Bay, with indentured servants in tow.
Good point, William. Our billionaires want to be as free as those adventurers of yore, but times have changed. We must produce a set of Ten Corporate Commandments that will tell them what they can and what they cannot do.Our very survival is at stake.
Thank you for this, Stan. As Dr. Reich relates, the corporate bottom line rules when profits are stacked up versus workers' lives. What's the matter with Oklahoma is the same as 'What's the Matter with Kansas' (Book by Thomas Frank). The major meat processing cartels that rule that state's economy never blinked over a few limbs chopped off their production workers, since they are beyond any threat of closure by government. The Republican pols are in their pockets, and the workers in the western Kansas towns are stuck with the cartels since they have driven small farms and co-ops out of competition long ago. Same putrid scenario exists across the South and much of the Plains States, and the Midwest. Reasons that foreign and domestic automakers have moved plants to the Deep South are super-cheap labor,
and inability of U.S. and state government to enforce safety regs. These plants have some of our most brutal safety records (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and others). Relating to Thomas Hobbes' 'Leviathan' book, mega-corporations have usurped control of government from 'The People' to corporations taken to be people by legal doctrine (U.S. Supreme Court, 2014). The corporate megalith has become the modern Hobbesian Leviathan unchained, and with this the lives of ordinary people become more "poor, nasty, brutish, and short" (Hobbes). We need to kick the right- wing demagogues from power or we are sunk.
Well said, Dennis. The limited liability corporation has become the Leviathan of our times and it leads to chaos.
P.S. I am done with Bridgestone tires, which fell apart for me anyway, and with burgers from major meat packers, which will give you Donald Trump's disease.
Try Beyond beef burgers, meat and chicken, you honestly can't tell the difference. Impossible burgers also good.
Mexican food is perfect without dairy. Indians and Pakistanis really know how to prepare tasty beans. The sauce is the secret.
I've tried these, William, and they are good and healthy. I am set for a few months with wild venison supplied to me by a hunting friend. Love it!
Stan, thank you for sharing this important story. Had the company done the decent thing it might have failed due to competition with other, less decent, companies. Capitalist apologists would have called it "constructive destruction, " an obvious oxymoron This is why government regulation is necessary...
I suspect that the DoD customer for the missiles may have played a role in this example of disregard for worker safety. (I can’t say for sure because I didn’t work in the Contracts Dept.) The government might have been reluctant to issue an amendment to the contract that would have allowed the price for each missile to rise, reflecting the cost of new tooling.
The lesser side of human nature is exposed in these choices. We’ve had the freedom to choose differently for years but when our national trinity is money, speed and convenience we shouldn’t be surprised with these consequences.
You did the correct action and that counts. We're going to need to elect true independents to WH, Congress, Senate.
We need publicly funded campaigns for a true democracy because right now it's democracy by and for the 1% and it always has been for them most part.
We need a 32 hour work week.
This is 2024 people - come on. There should be universal health care, child care, college for all (who want it). Are we a modern society or not?
Janet, unfortunately we haven’t gone much beyond the “Gilded Age” and the days of the robber barons!
… and The Gilded Age is what MAGA wants to get us back to … The rank and file of MAGA in the streets don’t know that, but the Oligarchs do!
Correct Pat,
However the rank and file MAGAt knows that he will never be the MFWIC of the Kingdom,. nor even a baron , but he can be the lord of the manor, his own personal manor, where the man is the king of his own personal castle and fiefdom, and he is willing to settle for that, with no threat from pesky self validating females, queers, people of color
This even includes men of color like Mark Robinson, Clarence Thomas, Herschel Walker, Kanye who believe that their wealth and status bestows immunity and privilege.
There were a lot of black slave owning planters in South Carolina and Louisiana who had the same thought, until the Nat Turner Rebellion of 1831, then they found themselves stripped of their plantations, their wealth and re enslaved.
Fair warning, William. European Roma (gypsies) knew that they were despised. Even so they insisted in keeping their peculiar customs, despite the discrimination. They never imagined what National Socialism would do to them.
People never believe the worst until it happens. Jews were well informed what was in store for them, but most stayed they didn't want to give up their home and treasures.
The fear of the unknown, of change is powerful. Powerful enough to create the MAGA movement.
Look around you at all of the progressives and soon to be oppressed if Trump wins, living in denial and deluding themselves that this election is really no different than previous, they even delude themselves, despite all of the evidence, that Jan 6th was a one off.
Pat, I think you should think of your own. A decent society asks for dedicated constructionwork, discussion and regulation; please ,ake a start.
So, what do you propose …?
yes
Do we just give up? Resign to live in concentration camps?
We actually have moved much beyond that time. We do still have a middle class and we do have houses that only the kings and queens of old could dream about.
We have to stick together..
Great story. Very interesting. I wonder if Bridgestone was considering off-shoring before the press conference?
I doubt the two Reps at the meeting could make the decision to close the plant, unless it had already been discussed by other Bridgestone leaders. I suppose the workers didn't have a union that could address the serious safety issue. Besides increasing wages, unions protect workers' safety.
What if consumes banded together to make a union that supports good American jobs? Before we buy products like tires, we could check the guide to see what tires are union made and have the best worker safety and paid the best wages. Perhaps unions can form a non-,profit to rate products. Buy American, support American workers and good American companies for stronger communities.
It's not capitalism gone rogue. It's what capitalism is ultimately all about. Creating wealth for investors by consuming resources, and workers are simply one more commodity to be chewed up and spit out. Killing / maiming them isn't the intent but an acceptable "cost of doing business."
Guardrails could help reduce or prevent maiming, and killing should be punished with jail sentences, no out of court "settlements".
These are the personal protections that our founders worried about when granting “corporate” charters that provide personal protection from liability to members of a corporation. Original corporate charters, if I recall correctly, were granted for specific time periods and had to be re-issued, based on the performance of the corporation. Of course, if people don’t elect representatives who have their BEST interests in mind, things like that go by the wayside.
I advocate for decent laws that serve to rein in the worst of the greed in capitalism, but when money is speech and people fall for the lies … mmmmph.
No person, real or fictitious, should have the right to harm another.
Of course not … Most of us think we have laws in place against such things … Except, of course, the death penalty … {for the record, I’m not in favor of the death penalty, either}.
The frog in The slowly heating pot.....
Capitalism will always go rogue when politics go wrong, and politics go wrong when politicians worship the Golden Calf..
Is this capitalism gone rogue? Or is this the very nature of capitalism?
The Obamas are interviewed <https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3059270937/?ref_=tt_vi_i_2> about their backing of the award winning movie "American Factory."
Efforts to minimize the costs of safety vs "efficiency" are overshadowed by the apparent reality that for many industrial jobs there are now machines, outperforming humans and making safety irrelevant. From installing auto windshields, as in the movie, to teamsters unloading ships. With the development of AI many other jobs will be redefined irrespective of their physical demands and most people will need to redifine themselves.
Corporate Greed and voting for a Republican candidate, who beams and smirks with Pride, capital P about being a wealthy, rich, with a capital R for Republican they Must vote for because of everything he’s doing for them? Like these Corporate Leaders in this Horrible All too Common Example? That’s why these Corporations and their Leaders are backing Donald and JD Vance folks, he’s Making Americans Like Them Wealthier - NOT You! He Didn’t his last time around, that bump in Your Prosperity was from results of his Predecessor, coming due, scheming Donnie just took credit, scumbag that he his. Vote Blue! Get What’s Yours! Really and Truly!
That’s America today. Profit is more important than the safety of the people who create the profit for these heartless bastards!
We are right in assigning different values to different kinds of work, bur are we right in assigning different values to different individuals, different value to body parts of different individuals? Perhaps we should assign absolute values to life and to body parts.
The amounts of the fines are trivial to these companies. They see it as a cost of doing business. The fines need to be per incident or per violation.
And corporations need to pay the full fines, and not be able to write off portions on their taxes.
Reinstate class action lawsuits!
Caterpillar Tractor Co. has also had some horrific employee accidents.
Also, among the most horrific accidents to happen to laborers are farm accidents, including the oft-reported incidents where a farm worker falls into a silo full of grain and can't be rescued. Hard to imagine a more horrible accident.
Amazon warehouse workers... :o(
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/10/25/a-hard-hitting-investigative-report-into-amazon-shows-that-workers-needs-were-neglected-in-favor-of-getting-goods-delivered-quickly/
Which is why I think twice at least before ordering anything from them.
Indeed. People power is a very powerful lobby. In these cases, it may be the only way to curtail these cruel corporations. Stop buying from them. Support small, independent businesses. Keep it local where possible.
Businesses are regulated -- not just by DOL and OSHA - but mainly via state laws like workers' compensation laws. In red states, these are mostly toothless.
IMHO these should be uniform. A worker injured in say, Texas, has little chance of receiving anything close to compensation compared to workers injured in blue states.
States rights don’t you know.
It gets complicated. When I saw "install a simple $6 device that would automatically cut off power to the machines whenever a worker wanted to lock them down to clean or repair them, but the company wouldn’t budge" it reminds me that the company exposure may have been limited to state workers; compensation which does not include damage awards for pain and suffering, and thus the cost of the insurance which may be negligible. But potentially if the machines are defective, workers might be entitled to damages under strict liability theory, under Restatement of Torts section 402A, liable for not only pain and suffering, but punitive damages that could be catastrophic in a single instance.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=3714f105-6d2e-4e33-be4f-17289ae7e547
Agreed, Daniel. If we are to be One People we must be unified by the same esteem of human rights. Federal Law is the Supreme law of the land, no matter what Roberts and Co. say.
The LOSER of the 2020 Presidential Election is really losing it!
Trump is finally the King he always wanted to be! Trump is the KING of DISINFORMATION :
The definition of DISINFORMATION: deliberately misleading information with the intent to manipulate.
Trump’s lies about FEMA’s ability to provide emergency assistance to the victims of hurricane Helene are disgustingly false and dangerous. Trump’s Project 2025, The far-right blueprint for the next Republican administration, would gut FEMA! And it would disband the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), agencies responsible for predicting hurricanes!
He is desperate and will do anything to try and win on November 5th. His despicable supporters in Congress are, right now, looking for ways to keep him in power even though they know he is an LUNATIC and a WEIRDO!
(Trump is a total disgrace and a traitor to Democracy and a traitor to America!)
He is a puppet. Just wind him up and let him talk. He is being used by 2025, Thiell, Musk, Koch Bros.. the oligarchs..Trump is their organ grinder's monkey...he does it for the attention...he has no actual political agenda himself.
Recently Substack "A Hurricane of Lies" written by the internationally known Dan Rather comes right into this subject, I strongly recommend as a must read
https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=247881&post_id=149944337&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=1pypb7&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMDQwNzU2ODMsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE0OTk0NDMzNywiaWF0IjoxNzI4MzQ2NTg1LCJleHAiOjE3MzA5Mzg1ODUsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yNDc4ODEiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.0tR7rI9wetmH0acHqea-JKAg5AzjwkO7lieV_isGplU
Disinformation=lies
tRUMP will gin up violence and anger at the wrong targets ; The ones who would help instead of the problem greed heads and power mongers (like himself), who are the real threat. That they are demonizing those who fight for the Common Good is their special evil "talent". What They do is what is indefensible ; unless they can lie. point their fingers at the good guys, and direct the rage away from themselves.
Extortion by corporations is a sad, hideous, outcome of toxic capitalism. Ii is horrible that workers in dangerous occupations have to choose between injury or death, or lose their livelihood. Project 2025 would abolish OSHA, and work to ban any safety and health regulations. Just so oligarchs can continue to reap bigger profits. They regard their workers as expendable cogs in a machine. Many remedies can alleviate this cruelty. One is to tax obscene wealth, with no exemptions or loopholes, at a rate rising higher for every million in annual income. We need fair income balances, and a restoration of a middle class. Which class should be the lowest income bracket, not the middle one. Poverty is a feature in toxic capitalism.
It is sad and hideous, but it is also an inevitable result. Capitalism has not changed or altered or evolved since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, corporations and banks and executives such as Carl Icahn just realized it's full potential.
But Robert got public attention on the problem, and I'm guessing Bridgestone was more aware and cautious about keeping employees safe, at least for a while.
In hospital nursing, especially in critical care areas, the injury rate was nearly as high as that of construction workers. The repetitive stress back injuries from lifting patients not only affected the nurses but also the quality of patient care. Hospital administrators were forced to replace a critical care nurse within seven years in the 1990s, a situation that was exacerbated by the understaffing that forced nurses to work too fast and lift with too few nurses to prevent injuries.
Lifting a patient is not like lifting a stable load because they move in unexpected ways. Usually, only two of us lift adult patients, about 70 pounds or more for each nurse. There was a hydraulic lift available on another unit, but it took too long to get it and took longer to use than lift without it.
Nurses pay for their own education, so ending a career, even with a worker's compensation settlement, made nursing not worth it 30 years ago. It wasn't even the money; entry to practice became a BSN, so it was at least four years of your life. I don't know what it's like to work in a hospital now, but I hear that nurses receive more injuries from hostile patients than in the past. Exposure to infections is ongoing, and when I spread contagious respiratory infections to my children, I had no time off for my sick family, so I had to use personal days to care for them and work sick myself.
It's unfortunately true that workers would rather work in unsafe conditions than have no job. Isn't capitalism in the U.S. great?
Sadly true ; The bills must be paid, food and heat in the winter, transportation, all of it costs.
My daughter started college planning to be a nurse, but after learning how thankless and dangerous it would be, she switched majors - earning a Masters in Art. Now in her 40's, she works as a security guard at an art museum in Boston. You know what they say about 'best laid plans'!
One of the primary reasons my partner and I switched hospital systems in New York City was the nursing care, and we're happy that we did. Geographically, it's a drag to travel across town(think about all that untaxed traffic congestion) but it's worth it. Especially when you are very sick.
Likely worse in Taiwan.
The UK legislated a crime of Corporate Manslaughter after a terrible train wreck which was entirely avoidable, a result of extreme and repeated corporate negligence
No court in the U.S. would allow such a law to stand here.
Of course not. It's up to Congress, who are owned by corporations 😥
Ah! But under UK law the senior managers can also find themselves personally criminally liable if they allow unsafe practices. Jail terms are in view. That focuses the mind beautifully.
Isn't closing a facility in response to a lawsuit a violation of labor law?
Good question. Especially if the lawsuit is about real harm to workers health and safety.
I'd guess that curtailing what a private company can do under the law would be struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. Private citizens can be curtailed 7 ways to Sunday about what they can do with their property (except their guns), but private corporations are as untouchable as the federal courts themselves.
In 2009 the Obama administration took over control of General Motors and replaced it management. Libertarians were furious at the time.
The courts have upheld that you can't fire workers (or, I think, close a facility) in response to union organizing activity. But the entire Constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board, not just its regulations, is being challenged after 80 years of existence, and this Supreme Court might just go along with that view.
I remember covering a shareholders meeting of a small company which made gearbox castings for jet engines. The chair of the company in the informal gathering after the main business, noted to a group of shareholders that it was an advantage to have the plant in a small rural town where they were the main employer. The advantage was people wouldn’t complain about environmental infractions since their jobs, or the jobs of family and friends were dependent on the plant’s continued presence.
Thank you, Professor Reich for sharing this story with us. You are correct, we need to slap them with fines so stiff that even shutting down a plant like that will cost more than installing the safety to protect workers. Money is the only thing those people understand,
No, I think power is what they most care about. It would cost them a lot of money to close a plant and relocate its functions, but they'd rather do that than lose the power that being able to do it gives them.
Damned if you do damned if you don’t! The power that Corporations have is a disgrace ! Blackmail is one of their most potent! Laws must be enforced and the corporate blackmail must be punished! Reminds me of the stories my grandpa told me about the company stores and towns in Canada in the last century..the pure unchecked power of the companies to do what ever they wanted without a care for the safety of the miners !
"Saint Peter dontcha call me
Cuz I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store" - Pete Seeger
The song, Sixteen Tons, was written by Merle Travis in 1947. (Just giving due credit.)
Tennessee Ernie Ford probably did the best known version -- the one I heard as a child of the 50s.
You are right, I was confusing my memories.
But you brought back some GREAT ones!!
Another day older and deeper in debt !
This is massively dystopian and hits hard. The right-wingers here in Australia are constantly trying to chip away at the social security nets to bring about these sorts of outcomes.
That’s the problem. There is no real leverage with these companies. Threaten them with fines, and they leave. You fully explained the problem, but you did not outline a solution. Is there a solution?
Many facilities I go to hauling rental equipment now embrace a simple thing called lock out tag out. When a worker needs to perform a maintenance function he puts his lock on so the machine can’t be used until he is done. (He/she). Likely this the cheap fix referred to as
Alan, lock out, tag out doesn’t always work. The person injured may be the one doing the inspecting.
A consumers' union that scored companies so consumers could support the companies who support labor and boycott the bad companies. People have a lot of options when it comes to things like tires. It's a race to the bottom now. But a consumers union could make it a race to the top.
Workers should not have to be maimed or even killed before there is an outcry to have better protections against harm in the workplace. Maybe the managers /(manglers), Hell, the owners should have to spend some time working in the dangerous areas. It's telling when workers are actually attacking those who would keep them safe. Because the thugs have made it more attractive to risk death or injury before having to risk losing their "livelihoods". If only the tables could be turned against the perpetrators of this kind of abomination.
I wish consumers had a union and scored companies on their wages to workers, worker loyalty, workplace safety, long- term investments, union support and other factors for responsible management.
If consumers knew how companies stacked up for workers and communities, we could support the good companies and boycott the bad companies. Companies like Bridgestone would be more likely to respect workers.
Danny Piper : When I see a new Volkswagen I immediately think about the scandal that their tech design people caused when they skirted environmental protections with bad emission work arounds The Volkswagen "beetle" was an icon of the 60's. It seemed a betrayal when the story came out. I don't believe I would buy one now, no matter how slick their advertising is.
A boycott threat could prevent the kind-of wage theft and mistreatment of workers, and things like cheating on emissions technology, that worsens harm to our environment.
A Trump presidency would cater to corporations, let's get Harris elected. Social media is likely a big influence on this election. Everyone is welcome to re-post the following or make it better and post:
Please, vote for Democracy. Vote for Harris.
This election is bigger than the individual issues. Trump lost the 2020 election. He went to court numerous times to contest the election; he lost every time. He tried to overthrow the election results. He still says he won and will prosecute those who he says cheated. Trump says he will fire government workers and replace them with people loyal to him.
Instead of having him on trial to overthrow the 2020 election before this election, the Supreme Court has delayed his trial and has given him more presidential immunity. Most of the media is owned by big money and favors big money interest like more tax cuts for the wealthy. If Trump wins, there is not much, if anything, to stop him from becoming a dictator. He admires Putin and the dictator of Hungary Viktor Orban. He has the will and the skill to be a dictator.
As Ben Franklin told a woman: You have a Republic, if you can keep it. Let’s keep our Republic, please vote for Harris.
Excepts from The Hartmann Report:
In the few short years after he was elected, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, now fabulously wealthy by Hungarian standards and an oligarch himself, succeeded in transforming his nation’s government from a functioning European democracy into an autocratic and oligarchic regime of single-party neofascist rule.
Orbán took over the Fidesz Party, once a conventional “conservative” political party like the GOP, with the slogans “Restore Christian purity” and “Make Hungary great again.” His rallies regularly drew tens of thousands.
He altered his nation’s Constitution to enable what we’d call gerrymandering and voter suppression in much the same way Republicans are now doing across Red State America, ensuring that his party, Fidesz, would win control in pretty much every election well into the future.
Orbán has handed government contracts to his favored few, elevating an entire group of pro-Orbán businessmen (it appears all are men) who have now seized complete control of the nation’s economy. Those who opposed him have lost their businesses, been forced to sell their companies, and often fled the country. Some are in prison.
Virtually all of Hungary’s press is now in the hands of oligarchs and corporations loyal to Orbán, with hard-right talk radio and television across the country singing his praises daily. Progressive media is functionally banned. Billboards and social media proclaim Orbán’s patriotism.
If you want to see Trump’s and the GOP’s vision of America’s future, just look at what Orbán’s done to Hungary.
Forewarned is forearmed. Spread the word. Feel free to re post.
I read the Hartmann Report daily, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded.