A GROWING MONOLITH

In a blog close to some of us toujoursdan offers the following comments:

"Secondly, for business to out perform others as the free market demands, they need the best talent they can get. So attributes like gender, race and sexual orientation have become less and less important than the ability to do the job well. In-demand workers are going to seek out the best deal they can get and gravitate towards business, and (if they are skilled immigrants) countries, that give them the best benefits packages. This is incompatible with political initiatives that were used to limit equality of people based on race, and still attempt to do so on gender and sexual orientation."

Well, this is a good a place to start as any.

When was the last time anyone saw an anti-trust suit? Someone took on Microsoft and pretty much lost. Before that there was ATT and it was broken up -- but wait, look now? Presto - chango now you see it now you don't and now you do! Honestly we have not had a successful anti-trust campaign since Robert Kennedy was Attorney General.

Let's look at but one example. The oil companies own everything from well-head to distribution point. They are allowed, by tax law, to move the "revenues" anywhere along that line to reduce and/or eliminate taxes. The oil companies are netting between 8 and 10 billion dollars a year!

The price of oil went up because: (pick one)
a) of the hurricane?
b) Because of the lack of production facilities?
c) the lack of new oil fields?
d) the lack of new drilling?
e) or the presence of war in the middle east?
f) none of the above.

If you picked none of the above you would be absolutely correct! The price of oil went up because someone with a lot of money decided to play the market with their dollars! And what happened last week? Some hedge funds lost their shirts because they bought high and got stuck! I would say that these folks screw with our lives but they do not even know we exist. They do not care or even think about middle class or lower class or even upper class. They are in it for one reason -- self-gratification. I made a bunch of money one time and I can do it again -- and they do. And we let them. It makes them feel good!

The net result of much of this interaction, at least on the real world, is jobs are going oversees. Rich land, land that can feed the world, is being paved over and houses are being build that no one can afford and that those that could are now being foreclosed on and no one cares about them. Oh, sure, the current administration will bail out banks and Fannie and Freddie not because of the help it provides to the people but because the stock holders will scream bloody murder! Self-gratification.

Now, back to the original question. What capitalists of this nature need are dull-witted,non-thinking automatons that get paid nothing and have no benefits and cannot or do not think; that will not organize and will not complain but will live on the edge so that they will be thankful for that crumb that falls from the master's table.

David Korten, author of The Great Turning, states,

"To end poverty, heal the environment, and secure the human future it is necessary to turn from growth to the reallocation of resources as the defining economic priority. Eliminate harmful uses (military, advertising, sprawl, and financial speculation), increase beneficial uses (environmental regeneration, food and energy self-reliance, health, education, and productive investment), and give priority to the needs of those the old economy excludes and represses (the desperate, hungry, and indentured)."

This is what we must be about.This is what we must change.